Follower of Quentin Massys

The Virgin and Child with a still life on a ledge

Lot Closed

December 8, 02:03 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Collection

Follower of Quentin Massys

The Virgin and Child with a still life on a ledge

oil on oak panel

unframed: 58 x 41.5 cm.; 22⅞ x 16⅜ in.

framed: 74.5 x 57.2 cm.; 29⅜ x 22½ in.

Possibly Vavasour collection;
Possibly with Duveen Brothers, after 1926 (both according to the 2019 sale catalogue);
With Arnot Gallery, London, 1929;
Anonymous sale, Marseilles, Leclere, 29 March 2019, lot 4 (as follower of Quentin Massys the Elder).

M. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Quentin Massys, vol. VII, Leiden 1971, p. 62, no. 23b (as an old copy);
L. Silver, The Paintings of Quinten Massys, Oxford 1984, p. 227, no. F.23b.

The composition for this painting is taken from Quentin Massys's Virgin and Child outdoors dated to about 1526 and preserved in the Detroit Institute of Arts.¹In this particular version, a landscape has been substituted for a warm golden-brown background which pigment analysis has shown to be original to this work. The still life on the ledge too has been expanded in this painting to include a cut peach and knife on a pewter plate, and a pair of plums with a bunch of grapes. Silver had suggested that the grapes in the prime version are symbolic of redemption through Christ.

¹ L. Silver, The Paintings of Quinten Massys, Oxford 1984, p. 227, no. 42 reproduced pl. 64.