Prague School, circa 1580

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on copper is flat and unreinforced on the reverse. It has not recently been restored. Although there are numerous spots of retouching within the figures, the landscape and the distant panorama on the right seems to be in very good state. The retouches in the figures seem to address fly spots or small brown accretions, which sometimes can be addressed with cleaning rather than retouching. However, the retouches are well applied. If the varnish were freshened slightly, the work could be hung as is.
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This refined cabinet work arose from within the Prague School at the end of the sixteenth century.  The painting may relate in composition to the lost painting by Bartholomeus Spränger of the same subject recorded in the 1621 inventory of Rudolf II's collection.  We are grateful to Alexandra Zvereva, who has suggested that this work could be a collaboration between two artists active in the Rudolfine court, Dirk de Quade Ravesteyn and Jacob Hoefnagel, the former likely responsible for the figures and the landscape while the latter for the objects in the foreground.