Years 1660-1679
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Christianity Rembrandt Ancient Spain Early still life Music in old painting Ancient French furniture Jewels II
See also : Christianity Rembrandt Ancient Spain Early still life Music in old painting Ancient French furniture Jewels II
1660 STEEN
1
Prayer before the Meal
2012 SOLD for £ 5.6M by Sotheby's
The evangelical or hagiographic iconography is not the only way to glorify religion in art. The piety of humble people demonstrates its universality.
The 17th century was the golden age of Dutch genre painting. In dealing with the subject of the prayer before the meal, Jan Steen offers a realistic, plausible and yet picturesque view of the tranquility of poor people helped by their piety in facing the trials of everyday life.
The meal will be frugal and the room is not decorated. Empathy is strong between the woman holding a nice infant boy and the slightly hunchbacked man who repeat together the long vernacular prayer hanging on the wall.
This oil on panel, 53 x 45 cm, made in 1660, brings the nostalgia for another time, as expressed by a master who certainly contributed to influence the great intimate art of Vermeer.
It was sold for £ 5.6M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2012, lot 9.
The 17th century was the golden age of Dutch genre painting. In dealing with the subject of the prayer before the meal, Jan Steen offers a realistic, plausible and yet picturesque view of the tranquility of poor people helped by their piety in facing the trials of everyday life.
The meal will be frugal and the room is not decorated. Empathy is strong between the woman holding a nice infant boy and the slightly hunchbacked man who repeat together the long vernacular prayer hanging on the wall.
This oil on panel, 53 x 45 cm, made in 1660, brings the nostalgia for another time, as expressed by a master who certainly contributed to influence the great intimate art of Vermeer.
It was sold for £ 5.6M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2012, lot 9.
2
Card Players
2011 SOLD for £ 4.9M by Sotheby's
It is rare to have fun when seeing an old painting. Made around 1660, an oil on panel by Jan Steen, 46 x 60 cm, takes us into a comedy worthy of Molière. The minute details of the characters and furnishings make it a masterpiece of the interior genre of that time.
Indeed, a comical scene is running in a comfortable Dutch cityhouse. A young man and a young woman are playing cards. She looks innocent and quiet, yet she is blatantly cheating. He is serious and concerned.
The secondary characters reinforce the discomfort of the victim. An acolyte of the woman is disturbing the player with a glass of wine. The dog does not care about the disappointments of his master and sleeps blissfully.
This painting was sold for £ 4.9M by Sotheby's on December 7, 2011. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Indeed, a comical scene is running in a comfortable Dutch cityhouse. A young man and a young woman are playing cards. She looks innocent and quiet, yet she is blatantly cheating. He is serious and concerned.
The secondary characters reinforce the discomfort of the victim. An acolyte of the woman is disturbing the player with a glass of wine. The dog does not care about the disappointments of his master and sleeps blissfully.
This painting was sold for £ 4.9M by Sotheby's on December 7, 2011. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1661 Saint James the Greater by Rembrandt
2007 SOLD for $ 26M by Sotheby's
The portraits inspired to Rembrandt by the New Testament are from figures of the artist's entourage, with a view to realism. In Sevilla, Murillo has a similar approach.
Around 1648 Rembrandt was in one of his frequent financially and socially difficult periods, and he would like his Supper at Emmaus, a modern painting on a biblical theme, to relaunch his career. The portraits of a young man as Christ are studies painted in parallel or for the preparation of this masterpiece. An oil on panel 25 x 21 cm was sold for £ 9.5M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2018.
The artist is indeed satisfied with this personification of Christ. The same young man appears as a Christ in half length with folded arms, oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm generally dated between 1657 and 1661.
In 1661 Rembrandt paints a series of Apostles, looking again at what the like of some of Christ's companions could be. This set of oils on canvas is homogeneous by its format, around 92 x 75 cm, by its chromatic richness, and by the presence of a thin black border which has not always been preserved.
This corpus of six works including a self portrait as Saint Paul was not documented in period. They were painted in another difficult phase for the artist and may have been conceived as a new demonstrator of the ever increasing quality of his art.
Rembrandt's faith was complex. His father was from a Jewish family converted to the Reformed church and his mother was Catholic. His realism excludes an identification of the character's religious position by a halo. The half length portrait of an old pilgrim in neglected clothes enters through its pictorial characteristics in the series of the Apostles, and the differentiated history of the companions of Christ after the Passion makes it attribute to Saint James the Greater.
This portrait of a man with a face concentrated on his prayer, whose very large joined hands form the focal point of the image, is an allegory of a faith that transcends appearances, directly linked to the Gospels and without any reference to the Mendicant orders. .
This painting was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on January 25, 2007, lot 74. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Around 1648 Rembrandt was in one of his frequent financially and socially difficult periods, and he would like his Supper at Emmaus, a modern painting on a biblical theme, to relaunch his career. The portraits of a young man as Christ are studies painted in parallel or for the preparation of this masterpiece. An oil on panel 25 x 21 cm was sold for £ 9.5M by Sotheby's on December 5, 2018.
The artist is indeed satisfied with this personification of Christ. The same young man appears as a Christ in half length with folded arms, oil on canvas 110 x 90 cm generally dated between 1657 and 1661.
In 1661 Rembrandt paints a series of Apostles, looking again at what the like of some of Christ's companions could be. This set of oils on canvas is homogeneous by its format, around 92 x 75 cm, by its chromatic richness, and by the presence of a thin black border which has not always been preserved.
This corpus of six works including a self portrait as Saint Paul was not documented in period. They were painted in another difficult phase for the artist and may have been conceived as a new demonstrator of the ever increasing quality of his art.
Rembrandt's faith was complex. His father was from a Jewish family converted to the Reformed church and his mother was Catholic. His realism excludes an identification of the character's religious position by a halo. The half length portrait of an old pilgrim in neglected clothes enters through its pictorial characteristics in the series of the Apostles, and the differentiated history of the companions of Christ after the Passion makes it attribute to Saint James the Greater.
This portrait of a man with a face concentrated on his prayer, whose very large joined hands form the focal point of the image, is an allegory of a faith that transcends appearances, directly linked to the Gospels and without any reference to the Mendicant orders. .
This painting was sold for $ 26M by Sotheby's on January 25, 2007, lot 74. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1661 Le Grand Mazarin
2017 SOLD for CHF 14.4M by Christie's
The collection of the Diamants de la Couronne de France is an estate declared inalienable by King François I in 1530. It increases over the years to constitute the elements of the royal and imperial jewels incessantly recomposed until the fall of the Second Empire in 1870 according to the variations of fashion. The collection was dismantled at the beginning of the Troisième République.
Cardinal Mazarin was an avid collector of art and jewelry. When he died in 1661 he left 18 diamonds to the Crown as a dation in payment that allowed him to pass on the rest of his huge inheritance to his family. This group includes the Sancy which was considered as the most beautiful diamond known in Europe until the discovery of the Régent.
At that time all the major diamonds had been extracted from Golconda mines. It was not until 1725 that a Brazilian source came to compete with that Indian provenance.
Note that the Beau Sancy which adorned the crown of the coronation of Marie de Médicis was a personal gift to her by King Henri IV and was not inalienable. It left France in 1641 and was sold for CHF 9M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2012.
On November 14, 2017, Christie's sold for CHF 14.4M as lot 600 Le Grand Mazarin which had been a major piece of the cardinal's bequest. Analyzed by the GIA before the auction, this brilliant cut diamond weighing 19.07 carats is of type IIa. Its VS2 clarity is sensational for a historic diamond. Its light pink color is extremely rare.
Le Grand Mazarin was worn by Queen Marie-Thérèse wife of Louis XIV, then by King Louis XIV himself in a chain and later by Empress Marie-Louise wife of Napoléon I in a diadem made by Nitot.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Cardinal Mazarin was an avid collector of art and jewelry. When he died in 1661 he left 18 diamonds to the Crown as a dation in payment that allowed him to pass on the rest of his huge inheritance to his family. This group includes the Sancy which was considered as the most beautiful diamond known in Europe until the discovery of the Régent.
At that time all the major diamonds had been extracted from Golconda mines. It was not until 1725 that a Brazilian source came to compete with that Indian provenance.
Note that the Beau Sancy which adorned the crown of the coronation of Marie de Médicis was a personal gift to her by King Henri IV and was not inalienable. It left France in 1641 and was sold for CHF 9M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2012.
On November 14, 2017, Christie's sold for CHF 14.4M as lot 600 Le Grand Mazarin which had been a major piece of the cardinal's bequest. Analyzed by the GIA before the auction, this brilliant cut diamond weighing 19.07 carats is of type IIa. Its VS2 clarity is sensational for a historic diamond. Its light pink color is extremely rare.
Le Grand Mazarin was worn by Queen Marie-Thérèse wife of Louis XIV, then by King Louis XIV himself in a chain and later by Empress Marie-Louise wife of Napoléon I in a diadem made by Nitot.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The historic Le Grand Mazarin #diamond is now on view in #Geneva until 14 November: https://t.co/BV5ooNMJwk pic.twitter.com/ym4zasjk1P
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 9, 2017
1664 The Wittelsbacher
2008 SOLD for £ 16.4M by Christie's
The Wittelsbacher is a diamond in an extremely rare color, an exceptional size and a royal provenance dating back to more than three centuries ago. This historic piece is contemporary with the Koh-I-Noor.
This Indian greyish-blue diamond weighing 35.56 carat of VS2 clarity is chosen in 1664 by King Philip IV of Spain to enter the dowry of his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa. The princess is well known for being in 1656 the main character of the Meninas of Velazquez. So this diamond is a contemporary of the royal glory of the Koh-I-Noor, the Regent and the Orlov. Entered in the Bavarian royal family by a marriage in 1722, it was then known as Blaue Wittelsbacher.
It was sold by Christie's in 1931 with the crown jewelry of Bavaria, and for £ 16.4M on December 10, 2008, lot 212. It has been purchased at the latter sale by Graff Diamonds. Its image before being recut by Graff is shared by Wikimedia :
This Indian greyish-blue diamond weighing 35.56 carat of VS2 clarity is chosen in 1664 by King Philip IV of Spain to enter the dowry of his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa. The princess is well known for being in 1656 the main character of the Meninas of Velazquez. So this diamond is a contemporary of the royal glory of the Koh-I-Noor, the Regent and the Orlov. Entered in the Bavarian royal family by a marriage in 1722, it was then known as Blaue Wittelsbacher.
It was sold by Christie's in 1931 with the crown jewelry of Bavaria, and for £ 16.4M on December 10, 2008, lot 212. It has been purchased at the latter sale by Graff Diamonds. Its image before being recut by Graff is shared by Wikimedia :
VERMEER
1
masterpiece
1665 Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer
Mauritshuis
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
masterpiece
1669-1671 The Lacemaker
Louvre
The image is shared by Wikimedia;
3
1670 Young Woman seated at the Virginals
2004 SOLD for £ 16.2M by Sotheby's
The Young woman seated at the virginals is an oil on canvas 25 x 20 cm showing a peaceful interior scene. It has in its colors and in its theme many characteristics of an autograph Vermeer. This attribution was challenged in the context of the Van Meegeren case. Scientific expertise has rehabilitated it. It was sold for £ 16.2M by Sotheby's on July 7, 2004, lot 8. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It can form a pendant with The Lacemaker. The two works have the same format, one of the smallest used by the artist, and may have been painted on pieces of canvas from the same cloth, too raw to be intended for commercial purpose. It is possible that each of them is the portrait of one of the artist's daughters, Maria and Elizabeth.
Both girls have a bright yellow shawl. That of the Young woman seated at the virginals was not convincing. Analysis has shown that this color was painted in two overlapping layers, probably several years apart, perhaps to repair a degradation. The removal of the upper layer gives this picture the three-dimensional intimacy of a real Vermeer.
The ultramarine blue was the most expensive pigment of its time, made from lapis lazuli. Vermeer appears to be the only artist who has made an intensive use of it, not only for the visible blue in his compositions but also to contribute subliminally to the hue of the background wall.
Present in these two functions in the Young woman seated at the virginals, this blue is also one of the arguments to authenticate the Saint Praxedis painted by Vermeer at the very beginning of his career. The fact that Vermeer never declared an apprentice to the Delft guild undoubtedly facilitates such considerations. Saint Praxedis, oil on canvas 102 x 82 cm, was sold for £ 6.2M by Christie's on July 8, 2014.
Each year brought its fashion changes. The date of 1670 is plausible for both The Lacemaker and the Young woman seated at the virginals, with the curls falling on both sides of the bun.
It can form a pendant with The Lacemaker. The two works have the same format, one of the smallest used by the artist, and may have been painted on pieces of canvas from the same cloth, too raw to be intended for commercial purpose. It is possible that each of them is the portrait of one of the artist's daughters, Maria and Elizabeth.
Both girls have a bright yellow shawl. That of the Young woman seated at the virginals was not convincing. Analysis has shown that this color was painted in two overlapping layers, probably several years apart, perhaps to repair a degradation. The removal of the upper layer gives this picture the three-dimensional intimacy of a real Vermeer.
The ultramarine blue was the most expensive pigment of its time, made from lapis lazuli. Vermeer appears to be the only artist who has made an intensive use of it, not only for the visible blue in his compositions but also to contribute subliminally to the hue of the background wall.
Present in these two functions in the Young woman seated at the virginals, this blue is also one of the arguments to authenticate the Saint Praxedis painted by Vermeer at the very beginning of his career. The fact that Vermeer never declared an apprentice to the Delft guild undoubtedly facilitates such considerations. Saint Praxedis, oil on canvas 102 x 82 cm, was sold for £ 6.2M by Christie's on July 8, 2014.
Each year brought its fashion changes. The date of 1670 is plausible for both The Lacemaker and the Young woman seated at the virginals, with the curls falling on both sides of the bun.
1665-1675 Cabinet by Cucci
2009 SOLD for £ 4.5M by Christie's
The creation of the Gobelins in Paris is included in a highly political context in which art is important.
The minister of Louis XIV was Mazarin, the Italian, a great lover of art. The Superintendent of Finance was Fouquet, patron of artists including Le Brun. In 1661, Mazarin dies. His close associate, the very active Colbert, excites the rage of the king against the luxurious château de Vaux, Fouquet's personal property.
Now, Colbert's hands are free. In 1662 he creates the Manufacture des Meubles de la Couronne in the then suburbs of the Gobelins. The idea is to provide the king with luxurious furniture by protecting the best cabinetmakers and tapestry makers so that their art is reserved for royal commissions. The management of the Manufacture is entrusted to Le Brun.
Having come from Italy, Domenico Cucci made several luxury furniture at the Gobelins, including a pair of large cabinets for Versailles in 1664. The similarity of design allows Christie's to date between 1665 and 1675 another cabinet, sold for £ 4.5M on December 10, 2009, which was probably done on an order of the Queen of Sweden. The image of this lot is shared post sale by AuctionPublicity.
This high furniture of Flemish style is perched on a stand of stone caryatids, and adorned with gilded bronze and with Pietre Dure from Florence. The caryatids may be the work of another Italian, Philippe Caffieri, husband of the sister of Le Brun and cousin of Cucci. A family business that would have pleased Mazarin !
The minister of Louis XIV was Mazarin, the Italian, a great lover of art. The Superintendent of Finance was Fouquet, patron of artists including Le Brun. In 1661, Mazarin dies. His close associate, the very active Colbert, excites the rage of the king against the luxurious château de Vaux, Fouquet's personal property.
Now, Colbert's hands are free. In 1662 he creates the Manufacture des Meubles de la Couronne in the then suburbs of the Gobelins. The idea is to provide the king with luxurious furniture by protecting the best cabinetmakers and tapestry makers so that their art is reserved for royal commissions. The management of the Manufacture is entrusted to Le Brun.
Having come from Italy, Domenico Cucci made several luxury furniture at the Gobelins, including a pair of large cabinets for Versailles in 1664. The similarity of design allows Christie's to date between 1665 and 1675 another cabinet, sold for £ 4.5M on December 10, 2009, which was probably done on an order of the Queen of Sweden. The image of this lot is shared post sale by AuctionPublicity.
This high furniture of Flemish style is perched on a stand of stone caryatids, and adorned with gilded bronze and with Pietre Dure from Florence. The caryatids may be the work of another Italian, Philippe Caffieri, husband of the sister of Le Brun and cousin of Cucci. A family business that would have pleased Mazarin !
1666 500 Arhats by Shi Tao
2011 SOLD for RMB 67M by Poly
The original followers of Buddha are named Arhats in India and Luohans in China. They have a personal name and specific attributes. They have been admitted to Nirvana. Their traditional number, eighteen, is not fixed by a sacred text.
In ancient India the numbers 100, 500 and 84,000 are used to express a multitude without a detailed census. In China the theme of the 500 deserving followers appeared in a Sutra during the Western Jin dynasty (266-420 CE) and in painting and sculpture during the Five Dynasties (907-979 CE).
In the fifth year of Kangxi matching 1666 CE, the 24 years old Buddhist monk Shi Tao painted a series of screens displaying groups of Arhats amidst trees and rocks.
Four panels are preserved and maintained as a set. They respectively stage the receiving of the treasure from the sea god, the viewing of a mystic light, the study of scriptures under the pine tree and a group of seven who study sutras.
Two of them are imitating similar works currently owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, from a series by Zhou Jichang of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This set of four ink in paper 105 x 39 cm each was sold for RMB 67M by Poly on December 5, 2011, lot 3312. The image is shared by Artnet.
In ancient India the numbers 100, 500 and 84,000 are used to express a multitude without a detailed census. In China the theme of the 500 deserving followers appeared in a Sutra during the Western Jin dynasty (266-420 CE) and in painting and sculpture during the Five Dynasties (907-979 CE).
In the fifth year of Kangxi matching 1666 CE, the 24 years old Buddhist monk Shi Tao painted a series of screens displaying groups of Arhats amidst trees and rocks.
Four panels are preserved and maintained as a set. They respectively stage the receiving of the treasure from the sea god, the viewing of a mystic light, the study of scriptures under the pine tree and a group of seven who study sutras.
Two of them are imitating similar works currently owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, from a series by Zhou Jichang of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This set of four ink in paper 105 x 39 cm each was sold for RMB 67M by Poly on December 5, 2011, lot 3312. The image is shared by Artnet.
1666 view in Nieuw Holland by Post
2025 SOLD for $ 7.4M by Sotheby's
A reversal of alliances in Europe led the Dutch to settle on the northeast coast of Brazil in an attempt to protect their commercial interests in South America. Recife becomes Mauritsstad, the capital of this short lived Nieuw Holland in the then called West Indies.
Frans Post, a younger brother of the painter Pieter Post, is staying in Nieuw Holland from 1637 to 1644. He executes many drawings and some landscape paintings with gray skies attesting the rainy condition of the equatorial climate.
In 1646 Frans is enrolled in the Guild of St Luke of his hometown, Haarlem. He joins therein Pieter de Molijn who was mixing some genre painting into his landscapes. For a quarter century, Frans Post will paint the views of Dutch Brazil.
His images soon lose their realism to display an idealized lost colonization, with busy slaves in fields surrounding small houses. He reuses his sketches to introduce exotic flora and fauna. Over time, the foregrounds become empty, perhaps because the artist preferred being less accurate for avoiding contradiction. The architecture is re-arranged as capriccios.
View of Olinda with the Ruins of the Jesuit Church is dated 1666. It features groups of workers, a blue sky dotted with clouds, and the inevitable exotic symbols : tall palm trees on the horizon and a group of exotic animals gently crossing one another including armadillo, anteater, iguana, sloth and several parrots.
This oil on a single Western European oak plank 58 x 89 cm resurfaced in an almost pristine condition in the 1990s. It was sold for $ 7.4M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2025, lot 42.
Frans Post, a younger brother of the painter Pieter Post, is staying in Nieuw Holland from 1637 to 1644. He executes many drawings and some landscape paintings with gray skies attesting the rainy condition of the equatorial climate.
In 1646 Frans is enrolled in the Guild of St Luke of his hometown, Haarlem. He joins therein Pieter de Molijn who was mixing some genre painting into his landscapes. For a quarter century, Frans Post will paint the views of Dutch Brazil.
His images soon lose their realism to display an idealized lost colonization, with busy slaves in fields surrounding small houses. He reuses his sketches to introduce exotic flora and fauna. Over time, the foregrounds become empty, perhaps because the artist preferred being less accurate for avoiding contradiction. The architecture is re-arranged as capriccios.
View of Olinda with the Ruins of the Jesuit Church is dated 1666. It features groups of workers, a blue sky dotted with clouds, and the inevitable exotic symbols : tall palm trees on the horizon and a group of exotic animals gently crossing one another including armadillo, anteater, iguana, sloth and several parrots.
This oil on a single Western European oak plank 58 x 89 cm resurfaced in an almost pristine condition in the 1990s. It was sold for $ 7.4M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2025, lot 42.
1673-1674 Flower Piece by de Heem
2025 SOLD for $ 8.8M by Sotheby's
From 1655 Jan de Heem executed lavish flower bouquets with a meaning of vanitas. After the same year he did not date his work any more. Nevertheless his most lavish compositions were made after he came back to Antwerp from Utrecht in 1672 following the French invasion of the Netherlands.
A tabletop of flowers in a glass vase, oil on canvas 114 x 91 cm painted by de Heem before 1672, was sold for £ 3M by Christie's on July 3, 2012, lot 43.
An opulent bouquet on a baluster base with a great care to details may be dated around 1673-1674. The glass vase is very densely populated with roses, tulips, lilies, poppies, some honeysuckle, a sunflower, an iris, plus grasses and wheat. It is accompanied by two finches, a grasshopper, a snail and other small lively creatures.
Amidst this opulence the threatening vanitas decay is symbolized by an overblown tulip, by gnawed leaves, and by the presence of the destructive cricket and caterpillar.
This oil on canvas 100 x 76 cm is beautifully preserved and remarkably fresh. It was sold for $ 8.8M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2025, lot 9.
A tabletop of flowers in a glass vase, oil on canvas 114 x 91 cm painted by de Heem before 1672, was sold for £ 3M by Christie's on July 3, 2012, lot 43.
An opulent bouquet on a baluster base with a great care to details may be dated around 1673-1674. The glass vase is very densely populated with roses, tulips, lilies, poppies, some honeysuckle, a sunflower, an iris, plus grasses and wheat. It is accompanied by two finches, a grasshopper, a snail and other small lively creatures.
Amidst this opulence the threatening vanitas decay is symbolized by an overblown tulip, by gnawed leaves, and by the presence of the destructive cricket and caterpillar.
This oil on canvas 100 x 76 cm is beautifully preserved and remarkably fresh. It was sold for $ 8.8M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2025, lot 9.
