Pauwels Franck, called Paolo Fiammingo

Hans Fugger from whom commissioned from the artist via his agents in Venice, Hieronymus and Christoph Ott, probably in the late 1580s, delivered  in 1592, and recorded in Schloss Kirchheim, near Augsburg, in inventories between 1604 and 1672;
Thence by descent in the Fugger family, probably at Kirchheim until the late 18th or early 19th Century;
In the Fuggerhäuser am Weinmarkt, Augsburg, where photographed in situ in the late 19th Century, apparently in the same frame it has today;
Acquired by Prof. Max Sänger, before his death in 1903 (he lived in Leipzig and Prague, but the present owner's mother recalled that it was sent to Munich to be restored);
His son, by whom brought to Norway in 1934;
His son, the present owner.

S. Mason Rinaldi, `Nuove opere di Paolo Fiammingo', in Arte Veneta, vol. XXIV, 1970, p. 229, reproduced figs. 326 & 327-8 (details);
B. Meijer, `Paolo Fiammingo reconsidered', in Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome, vol. XXXVII, 1975, p. 130, n69 & n73;
S. Mason Rinaldi, `Paolo Fiammingo', in Saggi e Memorie di storie dell'arte, vol. 11, 1978, p. 66, no. 29, reproduced p. 180, fig. 56;
A.J. Martin, `Erdzeitalter, nicht der Frühling. Hans Fugger und die Zyklen Paolo Fiammingos', in J. Burkhardt and F. Karg (eds.),  Die Welt des Hans Fugger (1531-1598), Augsburg 2007, p. 200, note 19.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This large painting has an original central horizontal seam. The old lining onto thickly woven canvas has two vertical seams. The stretcher is also old, perhaps seventeenth century, with north Italian single wedged joints and no central cross bars at all. An outer edging from two to three inches wide was added all round at that time. A certain amount of retouching has accreted over time, largely well integrated fairly recently within mature but rich and transparent varnish. The paint surface has the varied sensual texture of the period but appears secure. Some vertical craquelure suggests rolling long ago and there are various early vertical creases spaced mainly across the lower centre. The fact that several occur through the sensuous parts of the naked figures could suggest iconoclasm but they are more likely to be the result of creasing the rolled canvas at that level. These vertical damages are from three or four to seven or eight inches long running up mainly through the bodies of the beautiful naked women vices in the lower centre, with one or two also in the sky above and one in the curtain near the column at upper right, and another between the scales of justice nearby. These all have had some retouching, past and/or present. Other retouchings can be seen here and there, for instance in the lower sky at centre right by the edge of the curtain, although the sky is largely beautifully preserved. Some reinforcements can be seen in the blue drapery on the right, which is thin, while the magnificent colour change of the drapery at far left is perfectly intact. Many of the heads, and the flesh painting throughout, are also finely preserved, with rich Venetian modelling. The foreground floor along the base edge has been quite extensively retouched. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This unusual canvas shows a strange allegorical scene. In the foreground there are four naked, partly tied female figures lying on sacks and chests, accompagnied by a fierce looking dog and cat. This group of vices is surrounded by the personifications of  four virtues and five philosophers or holy men. The first of the dressed female figures presents some golden coins, the second one thrones, being crowned by flying putti with a golden crown and a ring of hearts, the third one holds a sword and the forth one, in front of a column, holds up a red helmet. The latter addresses another female figure with bare breasts, who is resting on a cloud, watching a pot from which smoke is emerging and who is holding in her hands a pair of compasses and a balance. The scene illustrates the Triumph of the Virtues over the Vices. As in a trial prosecution of traitors there is a taking of evidence, a judge or emperor, and the executive, while the person with the hat (a sign of authority) is seeking for a sign from above: the right measure and heavenly justice.

Virtues and Vices is a typical work by Pauwels Franck, called Paolo Fiammingo. It was first published by Stefania Mason Rinaldi under the title Disputa teologica as in a Swedish private collection.¹ Although she associated it chronologically with the Disputa Teologica in Dijon, giving it the same working title,  Mason Rinaldi rightly noticed the close stylistic parallels to seven pictures of exactly the same size, Paolo Fiammingo's Planets, published by her only some years earlier (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen: five of them are actually on display in the Vierschimmelsaal of the Munich Residence).² The present writer drew attention to the fact, that the Planets, painted for the wealthy merchant Hans Fugger  in 1591-92 to decorate a room in his castle in Kirchheim, had been planned as a series of eight pictures and that therefore Virtues and Vices, fitting very well together with the Planet Saturn (showing a pope installing a bishop), must be considered as a missing link and the conclusion of the series.³ This can be proved with the help of the partly preserved copies of  Hans Fugger 's letters to his Venetian agents, the brothers Hieronymus and Christoph Ott.  On April 24th 1592 Fugger wrote:  I have received the six pictures of the six planets. That means that there are still missing the  seventh and the eight picture, in which the seven planets are all mixed together [!]. These two pictures must have the same size as the other six.⁴  In the castle's inventory of the year 1604 we then find: Eight nice framed paintings, of the seven planets, and in the eighth the planets are all together.⁵  And finally, in the inventory of the estate of the late Johann Eusebius Fugger, 1672: Eight beautiful paintings of the seven planets and the eight [sic] planets all together.⁶

In one of the following decades the cycle must have been dismembered and seven pictures were dedicated or sold to the Wittelsbacher, residing in Munich.⁷  In those paintings Apollo, Diana / Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jove, Venus and Saturn, referring to the seven planets and the seven days of the week, are throning on clouds, together with their compagnions, while underneath the effects of their presence are illustrated in the form of human activities.

In the literature this picture has consistently been located as Private Collection, Sweden, but it has been in Norway since 1934, and before that it was in Germany.  The photograph of the interiors of the Fuggerhaus are said to be datable circa 1910, but the photographer, Fritz Höfle, died in 1903, so they must date from the late 19th Century. 

We are most grateful to Dr. Andrew John Martin for writing this catalogue entry for us.

 1.  See S. Mason Rinaldi, under Literature, 1970, pp. 224-30, there p. 229, reproduced figs. 326-28;  S. Mason Rinaldi under Literature, 1978, pp. 46-188, there p. 66, cat. 29; B.W. Mejer, under Literature, 1975, pp. 117-30, there p. 130, notes 69 and 73 (Meijer draws attention to a painting by Paolo Fiammingo, once in the collections of Rudolph II in Prague, referred to by Carlo Ridolfi as "un congresso di molte Virtù"). 
2. See S. Mason Rinaldi, Un nuovo ciclo di Paolo Fiammingo, in Arte Veneta, vol. XXII, 1968, pp. 72-79, with reproductions (wrongly as measuring 245 by 204 cm..  For the Dijon painting see Mason Rinaldi,  op. cit., 1978, p. 59, no. 5, reproduced p. 180, fig. 55.
 3.   See A.J. Martin, under Literature, 2007, pp. 197-216, there p. 200, note 19.
4.   "Ich hab 6 quadri empfangen von den 6 planeten, also daß mir noch der 7. und der 8. quadro aussteet, darinnen die 7 planeten all durch einander geen. Dise 2 quadri müessen den andern 6 an der grösse gleich sein." Cited after: Georg Lill, Hans Fugger (1531-1598) und die Kunst. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Spätrenaissance in Süddeutschland, Leipzig 1908, p. 144, note 2.
5.   "8 schön gefaßte gemahlte taflen, von den 7 Planeten, und in der 8., sein die Planeten beyeinandern" (Fugger Archives Dillingen, 28.4.1i, fol. 38 r).
6.   "8 Gemahlte schöne taflen von den 7 Planeten und den 8 Planeten bey einander" (Fugger Archives Dillingen 28.4.1g, fol. 68 r).
7.   In the year 1799 the seven pictures were exhibited in the Munich Hofgarten Gallery (for this and further informations see the file "Paolo Fiammingo" in the Archives of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich).