Follower of Jan Gossart

The Descent from the Cross

VAT reduced rate

Lot Closed

July 8, 01:22 PM GMT

Estimate

60,000 - 80,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Distinguished Spanish Private Collection

Follower of Jan Gossart

The Descent from the Cross

oil on oak panel, arched top

unframed: 56 x 42.8 cm.; 22 x 16 7/8 in.

framed: 68.2 x 54.4 cm.; 26 7/8 x 21 1/2 in.

Lothar Franz, Graf von Schönborn, Elector and Archbishop of Mainz and Prince-Bishop of Bamberg (1655-1729), according to the red wax seal on the reverse;
With Galerie Bailly, Paris and Geneva;
By whom sold, New York, Sotheby's, 17 January 1992, lot 107 (as attributed to Jan Gossaert), for $330,000;
Art market, Geneva;
From whom probably acquired by the father of the present owners.

M.W. Ainsworth, in Man, myth, and sensual pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance: the complete works, M.W. Ainsworth (ed.), exh. cat., New York and London 2010, p. 204, under cat. no. 25, reproduced in colour fig. 189, and p. 430, with dendrochronological findings (as after Jan Gossaert, c. 1525-30).

This finely-executed and well-preserved painting is a contemporary copy of the Descent from the Cross by Jan Gossart (1478-1532) now at the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, datable to about 1525.¹ The latter has been transferred twice and is in somewhat compromised condition. Much of the finely nuanced passages visible in the present work, for instance the shadows cast onto the cross, as well as such details as the metal studs on the sole of the figure lowering Christ, have been lost in the original. Since this small panel painting was cleaned after its last appearance at auction in 1992, several details and small differences between the two have become more apparent. Apart from changes to hair and dress, the principal difference is in the foreground figures – the swooning Virgin on the left and Longinus on the right – who direct their gazes towards the centre of the composition, whereas in the Hermitage painting their eyes are lowered.² Also, here Longinus grips no nails in his left hand and instead holds a more elaborate crown of thorns. Careful attention has been paid to the structure of buildings in the distance; and the secondary scene by the tomb is more legible in the small painting compared to the Hermitage picture.

Dendrochronological investigation carried out by Ian Tyers has established that the wood is eastern Baltic oak and that the most recent heartwood ring dates to 1469, leading to an earliest possible felling date of about 1475.³

¹ Inv. no. ГЭ-413; oil on canvas, transferred from panel, 141 x 106.5 cm.

² IRR shows the Virgin’s eyes were drawn almost closed and then changed to look up towards Christ (image available on request).

³ Dendrochronological Consultancy Report 1291, May 2021 (a copy is available on request).