Christoph Paudiss

This unpublished Homer is a recent discovery and a significant addition to the limited extant corpus of Christopher Paudiss, one of the pre-eminent German painters of the seventeenth century. Bavarian by birth, Paudiss is thought to have been in the Netherlands by the late 1640s, where he trained in Rembrandt's Amsterdam studio. Though Paudiss is known to have been back in Germany by 1656, where he worked under the patronage of the princely courts, the influence of his Dutch master was to mark his style for the remainder of his life. 

The picture is marked by the contrast between the youthful beauty of the seated muse, who gazes at the viewer directly as she plays the arpanetta, wearing sumptuous attire marked by its striking red colours, and the rugged features of the bearded and blind Homer, to her left, shown in far more muted tones. Paudiss extends the contrast by juxtaposing the laurel wreath around Homer's head with the pearl-laced headband which secures the muse's flowing hair. Behind them, the scribe jotting down Homer's verses in shadow is painted in subtle mid-tones and blends into the background. 

As with so many of Rembrandt's pupils, Paudiss' œuvre contains several examples of tronies, or head studies, which allowed the artist to explore the effects of light on the sitter's physiognomy, often with the aim to achieve even greater psychological insight. While the classical subject and multi-figural design of the present work are rare in Paudiss' catalogue, the same techniques found in the rest of his œuvre remain, namely the strong play of light and intensity of brushwork in Homer's face.

Professor Volker Manuth, whose thoughts provide the bulk of this entry, dates the work to the years 1658–60, when the artist was working in Dresden.