MASTER OF THE PRODIGAL SON | MARY MAGDALENE SLEEPING IN A GROTTO, A HILLY LANDSCAPE BEYOND

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 7 October 1994, lot 104 (where unsold).

The anonymous Master of the Prodigal Son's eponymous work is today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 986).¹ His works are influenced by Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502 - 1550) and Frans Floris I (1517 - 1570), the leaders of Antwerp Mannerism in the early sixteenth century. He was therefore probably active in Antwerp between 1530 and 1560, heading a large workshop that produced religious works, genre scenes, and allegories where the landscape often plays an important role, as here. Several versions of the present composition exist, with slight variations in the background landscape and in the Magdalene's eyes.²

1. https://www.khm.at/objektdb/detail/1203/?offset=0&lv=list

2. A very similar version was offered in 2013: New York, Christie's, 5 June 2013, lot 26.