Old Master Paintings and Portrait Miniatures
Old Master Paintings and Portrait Miniatures
Pieter Jacobsz. Codde
The Judgement of Midas in the Contest between Apollo and Pan
Lot Closed
April 28, 01:53 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Pieter Jacobsz. Codde
Amsterdam 1599 - 1678
The Judgement of Midas in the Contest between Apollo and Pan
signed in monogram and dated lower right on the rock: 16[6?]5
oil on oak panel
unframed: 56.2 x 87.8 cm.; 22⅛ x 34½ in.
framed: 75.8 x 107.5 cm.; 29⅞ x 42¼ in.
With E. Bolton, London (according to a mount at the Witt Library);
Anonymous sale, Paris, Tajan, 25 June 2002, lot 42 (as Jacob Pynas, dated 1604);
With Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam, 2003.
This scene is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses XI: 146–93. The mountain god Tmolus, seated in the centre, judged the musical contest between Apollo and Pan in Apollo's favour but King Midas, at right, proclaimed that Pan should have won. Here, Codde depicts the very moment of Apollo's vengeance, as he looks indignantly towards Midas, whose ears have already turned into those of an ass. Another representation of this subject by Codde is in the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (inv. no. 999).1
The third numeral of the date here appears to read as a '0' but is most likely interpreted as a '6'.