Decade 1600-1609
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Ancient painting Oil on copper Flemish art Rubens Pieter II Brueghel Early still life Christianity Persia Islam Safavid carpets Textiles
See also : Ancient painting Oil on copper Flemish art Rubens Pieter II Brueghel Early still life Christianity Persia Islam Safavid carpets Textiles
The Carpet of Senator Clark
2013 SOLD for $ 34M by Sotheby's
The extreme refinement of Persian carpets reached its peak under the Safavid dynasty. Well known by the connoisseurs, the carpet of Senator Clark had already been described for nearly a century as a masterpiece of Persian textile art. It was exhibited after the death of its owner in 1925 in a museum that de-accessioned it. It was sold for $ 34M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on June 5, 2013, lot 12.
Its red background is rare and perhaps unique in its class, the sickle-leaf pattern variant of the 'Vase' technique. Its fine floral motifs and its palmettes make it a vibrant and sumptuous artwork in 267 x 196 cm size.
It is always difficult to date and locate an old carpet, if not by considerations of its technical characteristics. The Clark carpet is Safavid and probably Kirman. It is comparable to the best pieces woven during the reign of Shah Abbas 400 years ago.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Its red background is rare and perhaps unique in its class, the sickle-leaf pattern variant of the 'Vase' technique. Its fine floral motifs and its palmettes make it a vibrant and sumptuous artwork in 267 x 196 cm size.
It is always difficult to date and locate an old carpet, if not by considerations of its technical characteristics. The Clark carpet is Safavid and probably Kirman. It is comparable to the best pieces woven during the reign of Shah Abbas 400 years ago.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
EL GRECO
1
1600 Saint Dominic
2013 SOLD for £ 9.2M by Sotheby's
El Greco lived at the time of the Counter-Reformation, when Catholic authorities were attempting to redefine the role of the image for encouraging piety.
Mannerism is disputed because the elongated body is uneasy to understand. El Greco does not choose between Mannerism and the Baroque which is the new apology of motion. The originality of his art is to be a strong and unique synthesis of the two trends.
An image of Saint Dominic by El Greco was sold for £ 9.2M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Sotheby's on July 3, 2013, lot 19. It is a rare theme, although the saint was Spanish. The founder of the Order of Preachers is a teacher whose hagiography is not miraculous.
Dominic prays with the habit of his order. His tall elongated body is moving towards a crucifix that he had positioned on a rock. His contemplation is internal as his eyes are almost closed.
The scene is located outdoor probably to glorify a hermit life then considered as deviant for a Dominican. The sky is ready for storm, contrasting with the quiet attitude of the saint.
This oil on canvas, made circa 1600 from an earlier model, is small, 75 x 58 cm, indicating that it was intended for private devotion. Coming from the Rau collection, it is sold for the benefit of UNICEF.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Mannerism is disputed because the elongated body is uneasy to understand. El Greco does not choose between Mannerism and the Baroque which is the new apology of motion. The originality of his art is to be a strong and unique synthesis of the two trends.
An image of Saint Dominic by El Greco was sold for £ 9.2M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Sotheby's on July 3, 2013, lot 19. It is a rare theme, although the saint was Spanish. The founder of the Order of Preachers is a teacher whose hagiography is not miraculous.
Dominic prays with the habit of his order. His tall elongated body is moving towards a crucifix that he had positioned on a rock. His contemplation is internal as his eyes are almost closed.
The scene is located outdoor probably to glorify a hermit life then considered as deviant for a Dominican. The sky is ready for storm, contrasting with the quiet attitude of the saint.
This oil on canvas, made circa 1600 from an earlier model, is small, 75 x 58 cm, indicating that it was intended for private devotion. Coming from the Rau collection, it is sold for the benefit of UNICEF.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
1600 Saint Francis
2017 SOLD for £ 6.9M by Christie's
El Greco settled in Toledo in 1577. The city had no less than seven Franciscan convents and three Franciscan friaries. The life of St. Francis was a call both mystical and commercial for the artist who produced ten different compositions on that theme. In 1606 he released some engravings to encourage his clients to order replicas.
Francis is not a saint like the others. His conversion to poverty is a revolution in medieval monasticism. St. Francis and St. Dominic are independently of one another the great reformers of Christian life.
Francis practices a mystical prayer far ahead of the interpretations of the Gospels which troggers his appreciation by El Greco. On December 7 in London, Christie's sells
A scene showing Saint Francis and Brother Leo in meditation, autograph oil on canvas 110 x 65 cm, was sold for £ 6.9M from a lower estimate of £ 5M by Christie's on November 7, 2017, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This work is typical of the maturity of the artist in Toledo. The expressiveness of the faces is counterbalanced by the elongated body of the saint which reinforces the impression of presence. The mystic light of the day enters the cave. The saint holds in his hands a human skull, a symbol promoted in 1548 by Ignatius of Loyola as the best incentive to contemplation.
The painting 168 x 103 cm kept at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa is considered as its original version. Made around 1600, it is contemporary to the Saint Dominic in prayer of which a 75 x 58 cm autograph replica was sold for £ 9.2M by Sotheby's on July 3, 2013.
Francis is not a saint like the others. His conversion to poverty is a revolution in medieval monasticism. St. Francis and St. Dominic are independently of one another the great reformers of Christian life.
Francis practices a mystical prayer far ahead of the interpretations of the Gospels which troggers his appreciation by El Greco. On December 7 in London, Christie's sells
A scene showing Saint Francis and Brother Leo in meditation, autograph oil on canvas 110 x 65 cm, was sold for £ 6.9M from a lower estimate of £ 5M by Christie's on November 7, 2017, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This work is typical of the maturity of the artist in Toledo. The expressiveness of the faces is counterbalanced by the elongated body of the saint which reinforces the impression of presence. The mystic light of the day enters the cave. The saint holds in his hands a human skull, a symbol promoted in 1548 by Ignatius of Loyola as the best incentive to contemplation.
The painting 168 x 103 cm kept at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa is considered as its original version. Made around 1600, it is contemporary to the Saint Dominic in prayer of which a 75 x 58 cm autograph replica was sold for £ 9.2M by Sotheby's on July 3, 2013.
#AuctionUpdate A highlight of the sale, #ElGreco’s captivating painting, ‘Saint Francis and Brother Leo in Meditation’, sells for £6,871,250 https://t.co/hJXs0ok6OI pic.twitter.com/1hquAKXCnW
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) December 7, 2017
3
for reference
1608-1614 Opening of the Fifth Seal
Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of the direct influences to Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1604-(1610) Le Beau Sancy
2012 SOLD for CHF 9M by Sotheby's
Nicolas de Harlay, sieur de Sancy, owned two remarkable diamonds. He used them to fuel the greed of kings and queens.
His pale yellow diamond of 55 carats took his name: the Sancy. In 1604 it was bought by James I of England. It joined the Régent in the Louvre.
Henri IV and Marie are a dissimilar couple. The Bearnese peasant seeks to counteract the trends to luxury of his Florentine wife. Perhaps to comfort her after missing the Sancy, Henri buys for Marie the other prestigious gem, also in 1604. This 35-carat white diamond of pear double rose cut was later called the Beau Sancy.
Marie, married in 1600 long after the beginning of Henri's reign, had not yet been crowned, to her dismay. The king finally gave away, again. During the coronation ceremony, on May 13, 1610, the Beau Sancy adorns the crown of the queen. The next day, Henri IV is assassinated.
The Beau Sancy has always remained in royal European families. It was sold for CHF 9M from a lower estimate of CHF 2M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2012, which is CHF 250K per carat. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Its ancient cut with bulky shapes is outdated, just like the complicated cut of the yellow Sancy based on a shield shape.
His pale yellow diamond of 55 carats took his name: the Sancy. In 1604 it was bought by James I of England. It joined the Régent in the Louvre.
Henri IV and Marie are a dissimilar couple. The Bearnese peasant seeks to counteract the trends to luxury of his Florentine wife. Perhaps to comfort her after missing the Sancy, Henri buys for Marie the other prestigious gem, also in 1604. This 35-carat white diamond of pear double rose cut was later called the Beau Sancy.
Marie, married in 1600 long after the beginning of Henri's reign, had not yet been crowned, to her dismay. The king finally gave away, again. During the coronation ceremony, on May 13, 1610, the Beau Sancy adorns the crown of the queen. The next day, Henri IV is assassinated.
The Beau Sancy has always remained in royal European families. It was sold for CHF 9M from a lower estimate of CHF 2M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2012, which is CHF 250K per carat. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Its ancient cut with bulky shapes is outdated, just like the complicated cut of the yellow Sancy based on a shield shape.
1605-1606 David with the Head of Goliath by Guido Reni
2025 SOLD for € 12.4M by Artcurial in collaboration with Millon
David and Goliath, oil on canvas 227 x 145 cm painted ca 1605-1606 by Guido Reni, was sold for € 12.4M from a lower estimate of € 2M by Artcurial in collaboration with Millon on November 24, 2025, lot 6.
Immediate post sale thought by Grok :
ARTCURIAL @Artcurial
'David and Goliath' by Guido Reni sold for €12,386,600 : a new world record for the artist Yesterday, under the hammer at Artcurial, the 17th-century masterpiece, rediscovered after more than 200 years, was sold. In collaboration with Millon Expertise by Turquin
Grok thought :
Estimated Date of the Painting
Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath sold by Artcurial on 24 November 2025 is dated by the leading experts who examined and authenticated it (Cabinet Turquin, assisted by Nicola Spinosa) to circa 1605–1607, with a consensus leaning toward c. 1605–1606.This dating places the work firmly in Reni’s early maturity, shortly after his return to Bologna from Rome in 1604–05, following his first Roman period (c. 1601–1604) during which he worked under Annibale Carracci and absorbed the influence of Caravaggio and ancient sculpture.
Significance in Guido Reni’s Career
This painting is one of the most important works by Reni to have appeared on the market in decades and holds a pivotal place in his oeuvre for several reasons:
Immediate post sale thought by Grok :
ARTCURIAL @Artcurial
'David and Goliath' by Guido Reni sold for €12,386,600 : a new world record for the artist Yesterday, under the hammer at Artcurial, the 17th-century masterpiece, rediscovered after more than 200 years, was sold. In collaboration with Millon Expertise by Turquin
- Record-Breaking Sale: Guido Reni's 17th-century oil-on-canvas "David and Goliath," depicting the biblical triumph with dramatic Baroque lighting and anatomical precision, fetched €12.39 million at Artcurial's Paris auction on November 24, 2025, surpassing the artist's prior auction high of €4.2 million set in 2012.
- Rediscovery Backstory: Lost to public view for over 200 years and recently authenticated by experts at Turquin, the work emerged from a private French collection, highlighting how advanced provenance research revives forgotten Old Master gems in the market.
- Auction Collaboration: Jointly offered with Millon auction house, the sale underscores growing partnerships among European firms to amplify visibility and bids for high-value rediscoveries, drawing 312 views and modest engagement on the announcement post within hours.
Grok thought :
Estimated Date of the Painting
Guido Reni’s David with the Head of Goliath sold by Artcurial on 24 November 2025 is dated by the leading experts who examined and authenticated it (Cabinet Turquin, assisted by Nicola Spinosa) to circa 1605–1607, with a consensus leaning toward c. 1605–1606.This dating places the work firmly in Reni’s early maturity, shortly after his return to Bologna from Rome in 1604–05, following his first Roman period (c. 1601–1604) during which he worked under Annibale Carracci and absorbed the influence of Caravaggio and ancient sculpture.
Significance in Guido Reni’s Career
This painting is one of the most important works by Reni to have appeared on the market in decades and holds a pivotal place in his oeuvre for several reasons:
- Early Caravaggesque Phase (Rare and Transitional)
Executed around 1605–1606, it belongs to the brief but intense period in which Reni openly engaged with Caravaggio’s dramatic naturalism and stark chiaroscuro. By 1606–1607 Reni had already begun moving toward the more idealised, classicising style for which he is best known (the “bella maniera” of the 1610s–1620s). This David is therefore one of the last major works in which he still employs strong tenebrism and realistic violence, making it a crucial document of his short-lived Caravaggesque moment. - Iconographic and Stylistic Milestone
The composition is closely related to Reni’s slightly earlier David with the Head of Goliath now in the Louvre (c. 1604–1605, inv. 522), but the Artcurial version is larger, more powerfully lit, and more emotionally intense. It represents the culmination of his experimentation with the David theme during these years (he painted at least four versions between c. 1604 and 1607). - Provenance and Rediscovery
Lost from public view since the 18th century and preserved in the same French private collection for generations, its re-emergence after expert authentication in 2024–2025 dramatically rewrote the understanding of Reni’s early production. Before this sale, no autograph work of comparable quality and ambition from this exact Caravaggist phase had appeared at auction in living memory. - Market and Critical Recognition
The €12.39 million result (hammer €10 million + fees) shattered Reni’s previous auction record (€4.2 million in 2012) and is now the highest price ever paid for a Bolognese Seicento painting, confirming the painting’s status as a “newly discovered” masterpiece rather than a known but secondary work.
□'David and Goliath' by Guido Reni sold for €12,386,600 : a new world record for the artist
— ARTCURIAL (@Artcurial) November 26, 2025
□Yesterday, under the hammer at Artcurial, the 17th-century masterpiece, rediscovered after more than 200 years, was sold.
□️In collaboration with Millon
□Expertise by Turquin pic.twitter.com/KNNA4gPBtg
□ Guido RENI, 'David et Goliath', canvas
— ARTCURIAL (@Artcurial) November 10, 2025
Preview this 17th-century masterpiece before the Nov 25 auction □
□️ Exhibition: Nov 21 to 25
⏰ Auction: Nov 25, 4pm
□ 7 Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées, Paris
□ https://t.co/QAYSH9o9JG pic.twitter.com/Y1tXkDEqVf
breakthrough
1606 Still Life of Flowers by Jan Brueghel
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
A precocious artist, Jan Brueghel found patrons in Italy. Back in Antwerp in 1596, he remains in touch with the young cardinal Federico Borromeo recently appointed Archbishop of Milan.
Tastes change. Religious wars bring a political suspicion towards religious themes. In Prague Rudolf II prefers the observation of nature to his political commitments. Hoefnagel draws and paints for that emperor some collections of flowers and animals.
Borromeo desired a representation of blossoms in the whole variety of their shapes and colors for brightening his living throughout the year, so enjoying nature even outside the blooming period.
Brueghel's artistic process is documented by his 1606 letters to Borromeo while a prototype painting was in progress.
After choosing the varieties of the flowers, he had to wait for their blossoming which was not simultaneous, in spring and summer. Each bloom in its full glorious development was added in its turn on the copper in a pre-defined position. They were drawn from nature without an intermediary drawing. In his quest for exactness he had also travelled to Brussels to observe some blossoms which were not available in Antwerp.
The referred masterpiece is now kept at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It is an oil on copper 65 x 45 cm, a very large size for this technique at that time. The great variety of brilliant colors met the expectation of the cardinal. The overcrowding of the flowers in the vase is unrealistic : it is an artistic trick to escape the didactic alignments of Hoefnagel. Brueghel's intention was not mystical or scientific. He desired to compare the beauty of the flowers to that of gemstones and paid the utmost attention to colors and light. He was obviously happy with his achievement.
The major picture from the next year 1607 is now kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is a 51 x 40 cm oil on panel, the best technique after the copper for the precision of the brushwork and the conservation of the pigments, less demanding in terms of skills. Customers were appealed by this novelty and Brueghel certainly painted a few panels in parallel.
A large oil on oak panel 67 x 51 cm was sold for £ 3.85M by Sotheby's on July 6, 2016, lot 11. It is a slightly later development with a looser and more pleasing arrangement of the flowers, dated circa 1608 by experts. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The artist gave up soon although not before 1611 the painting of flowers by direct observation and these early works will then serve as modelli. The goal remains decorative. Other artists will add the use of flowers and small animals as symbols and also the arrangements inside wreaths.
Tastes change. Religious wars bring a political suspicion towards religious themes. In Prague Rudolf II prefers the observation of nature to his political commitments. Hoefnagel draws and paints for that emperor some collections of flowers and animals.
Borromeo desired a representation of blossoms in the whole variety of their shapes and colors for brightening his living throughout the year, so enjoying nature even outside the blooming period.
Brueghel's artistic process is documented by his 1606 letters to Borromeo while a prototype painting was in progress.
After choosing the varieties of the flowers, he had to wait for their blossoming which was not simultaneous, in spring and summer. Each bloom in its full glorious development was added in its turn on the copper in a pre-defined position. They were drawn from nature without an intermediary drawing. In his quest for exactness he had also travelled to Brussels to observe some blossoms which were not available in Antwerp.
The referred masterpiece is now kept at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It is an oil on copper 65 x 45 cm, a very large size for this technique at that time. The great variety of brilliant colors met the expectation of the cardinal. The overcrowding of the flowers in the vase is unrealistic : it is an artistic trick to escape the didactic alignments of Hoefnagel. Brueghel's intention was not mystical or scientific. He desired to compare the beauty of the flowers to that of gemstones and paid the utmost attention to colors and light. He was obviously happy with his achievement.
The major picture from the next year 1607 is now kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is a 51 x 40 cm oil on panel, the best technique after the copper for the precision of the brushwork and the conservation of the pigments, less demanding in terms of skills. Customers were appealed by this novelty and Brueghel certainly painted a few panels in parallel.
A large oil on oak panel 67 x 51 cm was sold for £ 3.85M by Sotheby's on July 6, 2016, lot 11. It is a slightly later development with a looser and more pleasing arrangement of the flowers, dated circa 1608 by experts. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The artist gave up soon although not before 1611 the painting of flowers by direct observation and these early works will then serve as modelli. The goal remains decorative. Other artists will add the use of flowers and small animals as symbols and also the arrangements inside wreaths.
_-_Vase_of_Flowers_with_Jewellery,_Coins_and_Shells_-_WGA03593.jpg)
Pieter BRUEGHEL the Younger
Intro
Working in Antwerp and afterwards in Brussels, Pieter Bruegel lived in troubled times. His specialty of painting proverbs and morals might at any time offend the Catholic Spain which was then the colonial power, or the Dutch Protestants beginning to engage in their very long war of independence.
Pieter Bruegel chose the theme of peasant life. Their occupations are indeed symbols more or less easy to decode of the struggle between vices and virtues.
The difficulty in deciphering his message, which is explained by the political context, allows the modern viewer to focus his admiration on the anecdote. Bruegel's characters enchant us by their picturesque features and by the exceptional reference to the lifestyle of another time.
In 1559 Pieter Bruegel painted his first masterpieces, the Battle between Carnival and Lent and the Proverbs, two oils on panel in the same size, 118 x 164 cm. He will reuse this format until the end of his life for most of his major paintings. Despite the abundance of characters and the diversity of situations, the whole is coherent without error of scale.
These two works have a sensational and unprecedented ethnological value, showing the variety of occupations in a Flemish village as well as behaviour and clothing.
Pieter Bruegel died untimely in 1569. His art, however, had a follow. His mother-in-law Mayken Verhulst transmitted his images to Pieter II and Jan, four and one years old at the father's death.
The business of Pieter the younger is to copy the compositions of his father. At his time the original artworks had been scattered. The copy is prepared in conformance with Pieter the elder's original underdrawing. It means that a working model kept by the father was used nearly forty years after his death by the son. The underdrawings are now reconstituted by non-destructive inspection as a deep layer in the paintings.
For several decades, Pieter Brueghel (recovering the h from the original spelling of his father's name) made faithful copies of his works, probably executed as and when ordered from patrons. Luckily, Pieter II and Jan I were also skillful painters who, each in his own way, have significantly inflated the Brueghel catalog.
Pieter Bruegel chose the theme of peasant life. Their occupations are indeed symbols more or less easy to decode of the struggle between vices and virtues.
The difficulty in deciphering his message, which is explained by the political context, allows the modern viewer to focus his admiration on the anecdote. Bruegel's characters enchant us by their picturesque features and by the exceptional reference to the lifestyle of another time.
In 1559 Pieter Bruegel painted his first masterpieces, the Battle between Carnival and Lent and the Proverbs, two oils on panel in the same size, 118 x 164 cm. He will reuse this format until the end of his life for most of his major paintings. Despite the abundance of characters and the diversity of situations, the whole is coherent without error of scale.
These two works have a sensational and unprecedented ethnological value, showing the variety of occupations in a Flemish village as well as behaviour and clothing.
Pieter Bruegel died untimely in 1569. His art, however, had a follow. His mother-in-law Mayken Verhulst transmitted his images to Pieter II and Jan, four and one years old at the father's death.
The business of Pieter the younger is to copy the compositions of his father. At his time the original artworks had been scattered. The copy is prepared in conformance with Pieter the elder's original underdrawing. It means that a working model kept by the father was used nearly forty years after his death by the son. The underdrawings are now reconstituted by non-destructive inspection as a deep layer in the paintings.
For several decades, Pieter Brueghel (recovering the h from the original spelling of his father's name) made faithful copies of his works, probably executed as and when ordered from patrons. Luckily, Pieter II and Jan I were also skillful painters who, each in his own way, have significantly inflated the Brueghel catalog.
1
The Battle between Carnival and Lent
2011 SOLD for £ 6.9M by Christie's
During the 1600s decade Pieter the younger made replicas on wood and canvas in the original format.
Pieter Bruegel painted the original version of the Combat Between Carnival and Lent in 1559. This work, currently preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, is teeming with life and colorful, in the best manner of an artist who was the best picture maker of popular scenes of all time.
Carnival is perched on a barrel and encouraged by his followers who leave the tavern. Lent is an unpleasant nun whose friends leave the church. On the Flemish village square, away from the main story, a crowd of people is busy with everyday occupations.
Pieter II made five known replicas of the Combat Between Carnival and Lent. The only oil on canvas of the group, 119 x 171 cm, was sold by Christie's for £ 3.25M on December 7, 2006 and for £ 6.9M on December 6, 2011, lot 17.
On December 7, 2010 Christie's sold for £ 2M an oil on panel of almost the same size, 118 x 166 cm but in lesser condition. It has been established by dendrochronology that two of its planks came from a Baltic oak also used for another work by this artist dated 1603.
Also in similar dimensions, the best preserved of the four panels was sold for £ 4.5M by Sotheby's on July 4, 2012, lot 11.
Pieter Bruegel painted the original version of the Combat Between Carnival and Lent in 1559. This work, currently preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, is teeming with life and colorful, in the best manner of an artist who was the best picture maker of popular scenes of all time.
Carnival is perched on a barrel and encouraged by his followers who leave the tavern. Lent is an unpleasant nun whose friends leave the church. On the Flemish village square, away from the main story, a crowd of people is busy with everyday occupations.
Pieter II made five known replicas of the Combat Between Carnival and Lent. The only oil on canvas of the group, 119 x 171 cm, was sold by Christie's for £ 3.25M on December 7, 2006 and for £ 6.9M on December 6, 2011, lot 17.
On December 7, 2010 Christie's sold for £ 2M an oil on panel of almost the same size, 118 x 166 cm but in lesser condition. It has been established by dendrochronology that two of its planks came from a Baltic oak also used for another work by this artist dated 1603.
Also in similar dimensions, the best preserved of the four panels was sold for £ 4.5M by Sotheby's on July 4, 2012, lot 11.
2
1607 The Proverbs
2018 SOLD for £ 6.3M by Christie's
Inspired by an engraving made shortly before by Hogenberg, Bruegel's Proverbs are a juxtaposition of nearly one hundred secular sayings played in the village. God and the Devil appear only three times in all, only in ridiculous situations, while priests and saints are absent. Among the most amusing scenes are the peasant who shears a pig, the bell attached to the cat and the cuckold clothed in a gaudy cloak by his unfaithful wife.
From the literary point of view, Erasmus and Rabelais had explored this theme : everyone mocks his neighbors while ignoring his own faults, constituting the syndrome of the ordinary madness. A moralizing interpretation is inevitable, especially in those times of religious tension.
The Proverbs, oil on canvas 121 x 167 cm painted around 1607 by Pieter the younger, was sold for £ 6.3M from a lower estimate of £ 3.5M by Christie's on December 6, 2018, lot 7.
From the literary point of view, Erasmus and Rabelais had explored this theme : everyone mocks his neighbors while ignoring his own faults, constituting the syndrome of the ordinary madness. A moralizing interpretation is inevitable, especially in those times of religious tension.
The Proverbs, oil on canvas 121 x 167 cm painted around 1607 by Pieter the younger, was sold for £ 6.3M from a lower estimate of £ 3.5M by Christie's on December 6, 2018, lot 7.
#AuctionUpdate 'The Netherlandish Proverbs', an epic visualisation of over one hundred proverbs, painted by #PieterBruegheltheYounger, has sold for £6,308,750. #Christies #OldMasters pic.twitter.com/muT3QLQ6ZS
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) December 6, 2018
3
1607 The Road to Calvary
2014 SOLD for £ 5.5M by Christie's
Biblical scenes are prominent in the art of Pieter Bruegel. They are fitting his moralizing intent and the expectations of his patrins.
Bruegel painted the procession to Calvary in 1564. The dense and diverse crowd almost hides the relatively distant Christ carrying his cross. The religious dimension is mainly provided by the holy women in the foreground. This oil on panel is one of his largest works, 124 x 170 cm.
Pieter Brueghel the younger has not only copied the catalog of his father. His works in large format are often original compositions.
From 1599 he also treats the road to Calvary. In the 1607 version, oil on panel 122 x 170 cm, Christ is more visible and the crowd is less dense. In the distance, the city of Jerusalem looks immense.
This painting was sold for £ 5.2M by Sotheby's on July 5, 2006 and for £ 5.5M by Christie's on July 8, 2014.
Bruegel painted the procession to Calvary in 1564. The dense and diverse crowd almost hides the relatively distant Christ carrying his cross. The religious dimension is mainly provided by the holy women in the foreground. This oil on panel is one of his largest works, 124 x 170 cm.
Pieter Brueghel the younger has not only copied the catalog of his father. His works in large format are often original compositions.
From 1599 he also treats the road to Calvary. In the 1607 version, oil on panel 122 x 170 cm, Christ is more visible and the crowd is less dense. In the distance, the city of Jerusalem looks immense.
This painting was sold for £ 5.2M by Sotheby's on July 5, 2006 and for £ 5.5M by Christie's on July 8, 2014.
masterpiece
1607 Judith and Holofernes (2nd version) by Caravaggio
withdrawn before auction in 2019
Violence and pain are usual themes in Christian painting. Around 1598, when Caravaggio develops the chiaroscuro, the Christian martyrdoms and the most atrocious scenes of the Old Testament are conducive to an unprecedented dramatic intensity. As for killings with knife and sword, he stages Isaac just before the sacrifice, and the beheaded figures of Holofernes, Goliath and John the Baptist.
His first version of Judith and Holofernes is an oil on canvas 145 x 195 cm painted before 1600. His image, showing the powerful jolts of the dying general with the sword deep in his throat, is very innovative.
Reality meets fiction. In 1606 Caravaggio kills a young aristocrat and flees from Rome where he is sentenced in absentia to death by decapitation. He paints shortly afterward his second version of Judith and Holofernes that the artist-merchant Louis Finson tries to sell in 1607.
This painting was known by a copy 140 x 160 cm attributed to Finson, in a carefully applied technique that could not be confused with the spirited and spontaneous brush stroke of the master. In comparison with the first version, the man is almost identical but Judith and her old female servant have a very different role.
The first version showed Judith disgusted, close to vomiting, but who will keep the courage to finish her action. In the second version, she is proudly imperious, symbolizing the implacable application of justice. Her clothes have become dark to highlight the expression of the face that becomes the main theme of the image.
The servant changed her position to better encourage Judith. With the ugliness of her pattern of wrinkles, she will remain intractable until the death of the convict, at this point in the life of the artist when he must find a strategy against a court decision.
Another example of the second version was discovered in 2014 in an attic in Toulouse by the auctioneer Marc Labarbe. The cleaning of this oil on canvas 144 x 174 cm, including the removal of opaque varnishes, revealed the qualities that were missing in the copy by Finson.
Authenticated under the direction of Cabinet Turquin as the original referred in 1607, this masterpiece was prepared for auction by Marc Labarbe on June 27, 2019. It was withdrawn before the sale.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
His first version of Judith and Holofernes is an oil on canvas 145 x 195 cm painted before 1600. His image, showing the powerful jolts of the dying general with the sword deep in his throat, is very innovative.
Reality meets fiction. In 1606 Caravaggio kills a young aristocrat and flees from Rome where he is sentenced in absentia to death by decapitation. He paints shortly afterward his second version of Judith and Holofernes that the artist-merchant Louis Finson tries to sell in 1607.
This painting was known by a copy 140 x 160 cm attributed to Finson, in a carefully applied technique that could not be confused with the spirited and spontaneous brush stroke of the master. In comparison with the first version, the man is almost identical but Judith and her old female servant have a very different role.
The first version showed Judith disgusted, close to vomiting, but who will keep the courage to finish her action. In the second version, she is proudly imperious, symbolizing the implacable application of justice. Her clothes have become dark to highlight the expression of the face that becomes the main theme of the image.
The servant changed her position to better encourage Judith. With the ugliness of her pattern of wrinkles, she will remain intractable until the death of the convict, at this point in the life of the artist when he must find a strategy against a court decision.
Another example of the second version was discovered in 2014 in an attic in Toulouse by the auctioneer Marc Labarbe. The cleaning of this oil on canvas 144 x 174 cm, including the removal of opaque varnishes, revealed the qualities that were missing in the copy by Finson.
Authenticated under the direction of Cabinet Turquin as the original referred in 1607, this masterpiece was prepared for auction by Marc Labarbe on June 27, 2019. It was withdrawn before the sale.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1608 Bouquet by Bosschaert
2008 SOLD for CHF 5.8M by Koller
At the time of the development of botanical gardens and pleasure gardens, the bouquet of flowers discreetly animated by insects and lizards becomes an autonomous theme in painting. It has as precursors Dürer and Hoefnagel.
The tradition of Dürer's naturalistic image had been maintained at Nuremberg by Hans Hoffmann. Accompanying the craze for cabinets of curiosity, Hoefnagel gathered images of plants and small animals in disparate and didactic alignments that somewhat evoke the insect boxes of our modern entomologists.
The island town of Middelburg in Zeeland had a strong cultural and scientific activity including an important botanical garden. In 1593 Bosschaert is identified as a member of the local guild of Saint Luke. His earliest dated paintings, in 1605, are full-page images in the style of Hoefnagel.
Bosschaert and Brueghel invent the painting of bouquets in a vase in 1606. Working for Cardinal Borromeo but residing in Antwerp, Brueghel paints opulent accumulations mixing flowers of all seasons.
Bosschaert paints simpler arrangements on copper in small format. In this early phase we must not look for a specific meaning behind each flower. It must instead be considered that the cultivation of ornamental flowers, imported from the East and modified by skillful hybridizers, is considered as a top luxury in the Netherlands of his time. Ambitious and aware of the importance of his art, Bosschaert signs with a monogram AB imitating the AD of Dürer.
Ambrosius Bosschaert the elder is so named today to distinguish him from his son Ambrosius. The latter, the elder's other sons Abraham and Johannes, and his brother in law and pupil Balthasar van der Ast also painted still lifes. The technique on copper allows a great naturalistic precision.
On July 10, 2002, Sotheby's sold for £ 2.1M a Bouquet in a window, oil on copper 28 x 23 cm by the elder and for £ 950K an oval oil on copper made in 1624 by Balthasar.
An oil on copper 26 x 18 cm by the elder depicting a bouquet of flowers in a glass, a butterfly and a shell was sold for CHF 5.8M from a lower estimate of CHF 2.5M by Koller on September 19, 2008. The composition, well centered, highlights the tulips. The painting is monogramed AB, and includes a trace of date: 160., probably 1608. This piece is in exceptional condition after being kept for 150 years in the same collection.
With a very similar composition, another oil on copper by the elder, 30 x 20 cm, was sold for £ 1.75M by Sotheby's in London in July 2000. The flowers were more numerous and less dispersed. In both works, the glass is almost identical.
On January 30, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 3M an oil on copper 24 x 18 cm painted by Bosschaert the in 1607, lot 26, displaying other flowers in a similar composition.
The tradition of Dürer's naturalistic image had been maintained at Nuremberg by Hans Hoffmann. Accompanying the craze for cabinets of curiosity, Hoefnagel gathered images of plants and small animals in disparate and didactic alignments that somewhat evoke the insect boxes of our modern entomologists.
The island town of Middelburg in Zeeland had a strong cultural and scientific activity including an important botanical garden. In 1593 Bosschaert is identified as a member of the local guild of Saint Luke. His earliest dated paintings, in 1605, are full-page images in the style of Hoefnagel.
Bosschaert and Brueghel invent the painting of bouquets in a vase in 1606. Working for Cardinal Borromeo but residing in Antwerp, Brueghel paints opulent accumulations mixing flowers of all seasons.
Bosschaert paints simpler arrangements on copper in small format. In this early phase we must not look for a specific meaning behind each flower. It must instead be considered that the cultivation of ornamental flowers, imported from the East and modified by skillful hybridizers, is considered as a top luxury in the Netherlands of his time. Ambitious and aware of the importance of his art, Bosschaert signs with a monogram AB imitating the AD of Dürer.
Ambrosius Bosschaert the elder is so named today to distinguish him from his son Ambrosius. The latter, the elder's other sons Abraham and Johannes, and his brother in law and pupil Balthasar van der Ast also painted still lifes. The technique on copper allows a great naturalistic precision.
On July 10, 2002, Sotheby's sold for £ 2.1M a Bouquet in a window, oil on copper 28 x 23 cm by the elder and for £ 950K an oval oil on copper made in 1624 by Balthasar.
An oil on copper 26 x 18 cm by the elder depicting a bouquet of flowers in a glass, a butterfly and a shell was sold for CHF 5.8M from a lower estimate of CHF 2.5M by Koller on September 19, 2008. The composition, well centered, highlights the tulips. The painting is monogramed AB, and includes a trace of date: 160., probably 1608. This piece is in exceptional condition after being kept for 150 years in the same collection.
With a very similar composition, another oil on copper by the elder, 30 x 20 cm, was sold for £ 1.75M by Sotheby's in London in July 2000. The flowers were more numerous and less dispersed. In both works, the glass is almost identical.
On January 30, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 3M an oil on copper 24 x 18 cm painted by Bosschaert the in 1607, lot 26, displaying other flowers in a similar composition.
RUBENS
1
1609 Salome
2023 SOLD for $ 27M by Sotheby's
Rubens had left for Italy in 1600, aged 23. Informed that his mother is dying, he rushes back to Antwerp at the end of 1608. The ongoing peace negotiations in The Hague, accompanied by cease-fire, bring great hope to Flanders, and the artist will not come back to Italy.
He was bringing to his home country the new Baroque trends in Italian art. Highly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, he features heavily emotional scenes, with dynamic and complex compositions, violent lights, bodies twisted by hatred or despair. He uses skinned figures as models for his scary naked soldiers.
He had come back to Antwerp for family reasons, but political circumstances were particularly favorable for the start of his business. In April 1609, the Antwerp treaty is ending the war between Spain and the United Provinces.
In July, Rubens is appointed court painter to the Archduke. He exercises his art for the very important commissions from the churches of Antwerp finally liberated from the wars of religion, and also for private clients.
The Italian influence on Rubens is attested by the Italianisation of his first name from Peter Paul to Pietro Paolo just before his hurried leave from Rome to Antwerp.
Salome being presented with the head of Saint John the Baptist is an early, and possibly the earliest, example of the transfer to Flanders by Rubens in 1609 of the new Baroque style.
Rubens had in mind to picture the most horrifying scenes of Bible and of Greco-Roman mythology, in the follow of Titian and Caravaggio.
He brought from Italy to Antwerp a lot of preparation drawings for this big bang of his career. The figures of over-muscular men had their inspiration in Michelangelo's sculptures and van Tetrode"s écorchés. The artist reused his drawings for his finished compositions and did not use chalk or graphite underdrawings. He also made outlinings during his process of painting.
In this breakthrough series, the psychologically complex scenes provide a full contrast between brute men and merciless women. Secondary characters such as maid women may provide intermediate feelings including a repulsion from what is happening.
The decision to decapitate the Baptist was his speaking against the royal incest of Herod with Salome's mother Herodias. A highly shocking detail of Rubens's picture is the old maid pulling the offending tongue while presenting the cut off head on a charger to a sententious Salome. That head is gliding on its blood. Another disturbing detail is the foot of the executioner on the naked back of the martyred saint. Bluish tones are added to the still bleeding corpse.
The Salome, oil on oak panel 94 x 102 cm, surfaced in 1666 in an inventory of the Royal Spanish collection. It is believed that it had been commissioned by a Spanish patron taking the advantage of the end of the Flemish war for enjoying the new art.
It was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on January 26, 2023, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He was bringing to his home country the new Baroque trends in Italian art. Highly influenced by the art of Caravaggio, he features heavily emotional scenes, with dynamic and complex compositions, violent lights, bodies twisted by hatred or despair. He uses skinned figures as models for his scary naked soldiers.
He had come back to Antwerp for family reasons, but political circumstances were particularly favorable for the start of his business. In April 1609, the Antwerp treaty is ending the war between Spain and the United Provinces.
In July, Rubens is appointed court painter to the Archduke. He exercises his art for the very important commissions from the churches of Antwerp finally liberated from the wars of religion, and also for private clients.
The Italian influence on Rubens is attested by the Italianisation of his first name from Peter Paul to Pietro Paolo just before his hurried leave from Rome to Antwerp.
Salome being presented with the head of Saint John the Baptist is an early, and possibly the earliest, example of the transfer to Flanders by Rubens in 1609 of the new Baroque style.
Rubens had in mind to picture the most horrifying scenes of Bible and of Greco-Roman mythology, in the follow of Titian and Caravaggio.
He brought from Italy to Antwerp a lot of preparation drawings for this big bang of his career. The figures of over-muscular men had their inspiration in Michelangelo's sculptures and van Tetrode"s écorchés. The artist reused his drawings for his finished compositions and did not use chalk or graphite underdrawings. He also made outlinings during his process of painting.
In this breakthrough series, the psychologically complex scenes provide a full contrast between brute men and merciless women. Secondary characters such as maid women may provide intermediate feelings including a repulsion from what is happening.
The decision to decapitate the Baptist was his speaking against the royal incest of Herod with Salome's mother Herodias. A highly shocking detail of Rubens's picture is the old maid pulling the offending tongue while presenting the cut off head on a charger to a sententious Salome. That head is gliding on its blood. Another disturbing detail is the foot of the executioner on the naked back of the martyred saint. Bluish tones are added to the still bleeding corpse.
The Salome, oil on oak panel 94 x 102 cm, surfaced in 1666 in an inventory of the Royal Spanish collection. It is believed that it had been commissioned by a Spanish patron taking the advantage of the end of the Flemish war for enjoying the new art.
It was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on January 26, 2023, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
masterpiece
1609 Samson and Delilah
National Gallery
The burgomaster Nicolaas Rockox had assigned two important public commissions to Rubens, for the town hall and the cathedral of Antwerp, and ordered him for his private residence a scene of Samson and Delilah.
Samson et Delilah is an oil on wood 185 x 205 cm. The theme of the colossus neutralized by the ingenuity of women, staged at the fatal moment, may be compared with the Judith by Caravaggio. The original version was authenticated in 1929 and sold by Christie's on July 11, 1980 for £ 2.53M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Samson by Rubens, as also his Holofernes in the same period, is strongly influenced by the too muscular male bodies by Michelangelo. The twist of the body is baroque, and the lighting of the scene with candles shows that Rubens also appreciated the modernism of Caravaggio.
Before starting the job for the painting, Rubens was testing in drawings the emotions of the tragic group of four characters : the giant, the wife, the barber and the maid. The analysis of the sketch invited him to increase the dramatic tension when he made the modello and the final painting on panel, in which the group is tighter and the main characters more personalized and more erotic.
The only known preparation drawing for the Samson and Delilah of the mayor was sold for £ 3.2M by Christie's on July 10, 2014, lot 9.
Samson et Delilah is an oil on wood 185 x 205 cm. The theme of the colossus neutralized by the ingenuity of women, staged at the fatal moment, may be compared with the Judith by Caravaggio. The original version was authenticated in 1929 and sold by Christie's on July 11, 1980 for £ 2.53M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Samson by Rubens, as also his Holofernes in the same period, is strongly influenced by the too muscular male bodies by Michelangelo. The twist of the body is baroque, and the lighting of the scene with candles shows that Rubens also appreciated the modernism of Caravaggio.
Before starting the job for the painting, Rubens was testing in drawings the emotions of the tragic group of four characters : the giant, the wife, the barber and the maid. The analysis of the sketch invited him to increase the dramatic tension when he made the modello and the final painting on panel, in which the group is tighter and the main characters more personalized and more erotic.
The only known preparation drawing for the Samson and Delilah of the mayor was sold for £ 3.2M by Christie's on July 10, 2014, lot 9.
