Sold Without Reserve | GERMAN SCHOOL, FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY | JUPITER AND IO

The composition of this canvas has its roots in a painting of Jupiter and Io by Matthäus Gundelach (fig. 1), an Imperial Kammermaler of Rudolf II and close associate of Joseph Heintz the Elder.¹ That work by Gundelach, which was likely completed in Prague and dates to about 1610-1614, in turn drew clear inspiration from Correggio's painting of the same subject, which entered the Imperial Collection of Rudolf II in the first decade of the seventeenth century. By the early 19th century, Gundelach's painting had entered a prominent Prussian collected, where it descended for generations.

1. Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 7 December 2017, lot 139. Oil on panel, 61 by 39.8 cm.