Follower of Jan van Scorel

Wilhelm Ettle, Frankfurt am Main (according to a note by Friedländer (?) at the R.K.D., The Hague);
Collection Fentener van Vlissingen, Vught, by 1975;
Thence by descent.

M. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden/Brussels 1975, vol. XII, p. 124, no. 333a.

The actual painting is a lot softer and less red in tone, and shows less contrast than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel seems to consist of 3 vertical planks. The panel has been cradled and is bevelled on all sides. There is a small chip in the upper left corner and a few small surface scratches along the lower edge. Significant spots of retouching are visible to the naked eye, e.g. in the Virgin's face and in her neck, in the child's face, chest and shoulder, in the draperies lower left, and in the drapery upper centre. The paint surface is under a thick and glossy layer of varnish. Inspection under ultra violet light confirms the aforesaid retouchings and reveals extensive additional scattered retouchings throughout, e.g. in the sky and ruins in the background upper right, in the draperies and limbs of the putti on the right, and in the hands of the Virgin. Offered unframed. (MW)
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This painting of a Madonna and child together with two angels, described by Friedländer as a "free replica of equal merit",¹ is painted by a follower of Jan van Scorel.  This painting and the other picture listed by Friedländer² are now both considered to be unauthentic, though the debt to Scorel is evident when one looks at his Madonna and child in the Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin (inv. no. 644a) and in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (inv. no. 1798).³  It seems to have been a subject favoured by Scorel and was perhaps intended for private devotional use.

 

1. Friedländer under Literature, p. 124, no. 333a.
2. op. cit, p. 124, no. 333, formerly with Galerie Dr. Benedict & Co, Berlin. Friedländer regarded this version as authentic, however, it is not anymore considered as such.
3. op. cit., p. 123, reproduced plate 179, no. 329, plate 180, no. 330.