Old Masters Day Sale
Old Masters Day Sale
Still life with birds, fish, a rabbit and fruits in a niche
Lot Closed
July 8, 01:43 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Master of the Stirling-Maxwell Collection
active in Toledo circa 1640
Still life with birds, fish, a rabbit and fruits in a niche
oil on canvas
unframed: 78 x 96.2 cm.; 30¾ x 37⅞ in.
framed: 86.9 x 105.4 cm.; 34¼ x 41½ in
This composition, with the still life elements individually displayed and dramatically lit in an otherwise bare niche, is directly inspired by the example of Juan Sánchez Cótan (1560-1627). It has consequently been presumed that the Master of the Stirling-Maxwell Collection was working within Cótan's orbit, probably between Madrid and Toledo.
The identity of the Master, whose eponymous work (which includes a fish identical to the one in the present painting) was that in the collection of the Scottish nobleman and historian of Spanish art, William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-78),1 has been associated variously with the Spanish painters Alonso de Escobar (active circa 1602-37) and Alejandro de Loarte (1590/1600-26), and the Italian artist Jacopo Chimenti da Empoli (1551-1640), but never to any of these beyond doubt.