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3 - 3. Atelier de Jan Gossaert dit Mabuse (?Maubeuge circa 1478-…

Estimate €30,000 - €50,000

Description

3. Atelier de Jan Gossaert dit Mabuse (?Maubeuge circa 1478-circa 1532 Anvers) Vierge à l'Enfant inscribed and dated 'IONNES MALBODIUS INVENIT*1527' (along lower edge) oil on panel, arched top 31,4 x 24.9cm (12 3/8 x 9 13/16in). Provenance Collection Baron Descamps, Brussels (according to the label on the reverse) Sale, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 15 April 1999, lot 36 With Henk Vervondel, Ghent Exhibited Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Le siècle de Bruegel : la peinture en Belgique au XVIe siècle, 27 September-24 November 1963, cat. no. 115 Literature Le siècle de Bruegel: la peinture en Belgique au XVIe siècle, Brussels, 1963, exh. cat., pp. 106-107, cat. no. 115, ill. 76 (as Gossaert) S. J. Herzog, Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse (CA. 1478-1532), a study of his chronology with a catalogue of his works (Voll. I-III), a dissertation submitted to Bryn Mawr College, Michigan, 1969, p. 337, no 66 c. (as copy) L. Campbell and J. Dunkerton, 'A Famous Gossaert Rediscovered' in The Burlington Magazine, March 1996, vol. 138, no. 1116, pp. 164- 173, p. 164, note 2 M. W. Ainsworth, S. Alsteens, N. M. Orenstein, Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures JAN GOSSART'S RENAISSANCE. The Complete Works, New York, 2010, pp. 177-178 and note 6 (as copy) The present painting depicting the Virgin and Child Enthroned has long attracted scholarly attention and is among the best documented versions of a celebrated devotional composition by Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse. Inscribed IOANNES MALBODIVS INVENIT 1527, the painting can be traced to the distinguished collection of Jean-Baptiste Descamps (1714-1791) and, under this provenance, entered the modern literature on the artist. This intimate devotional image derives from one of Gossaert's most successful inventions, a composition known today through several painted versions and further disseminated through an engraving by Crispijn de Passe I (1564-1637). Published in 1589 the print describes Gossaert's original composition as an insignis tabella. Other important versions are in London (National Gallery, inv. NG1888), Munich (Alte Pinakothek, inv. WAF 306) and Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. 942). Scholarly discussion regarding the status of the various versions has variously assigned the London work or the Vienna work as the prime version of this clearly popular composition. The sits Virgin holding the Christ Child beneath a classical architectural setting inscribed with a paraphrase of Genesis 3:15, alluding to Christ's triumph over sin and mankind's redemption through the Incarnation. Over time, the present version has been variously considered an autograph work and a product of Gossaert's studio. In the 1967 exhibition Le siècle de Bruegel: la peinture en Belgique au XVIe siècle (see Literature), it was exhibited and published with a full attribution. S.J. Herzog, in her doctoral dissertation in 1969 (see Literature) then considered the work to be a copy after Gossaert. This marked a significant turning point in the scholarly reception of the painting. More recently its attribution was discussed by Lorne Campbell and Jill Dunkerton in their article published in The Burlington Magazine in 1996 (see Literature). Known to the authors through the 1963 exhibition, they discuss the present work as part of their article about the work in the National Gallery, London. Their article concludes that the London work was most probably the original composition on which the others were based, including that in Munich, to which the present work most closely relates. Of particular interest is the fact that the present painting shows a variant in which the Christ Child's right arm is lowered, a feature shared with the Munich version and distinguishing both works from the London panel. Campbell and Dunkerton further observed that the present picture and the Munich version bear the aforementioned inscription IOANNES MALBODIVS INVENIT 1527, reinforcing their close relationship within the wider group of works emanating from the workshop. Finally, the painting was most recently included in Maryan W. Ainsworth, Stijn Alsteens and Nadine M. Orenstein's catalogue (see Literature), where it is listed as a copy after Gossaert. The same publication likewise classifies the London and Munich panels as copies, while accepting the Vienna version as autograph. Although modern scholarship no longer considers the present work to be by Gossaert's own hand, it remains an important witness to the popularity and wide dissemination of one of the artist's most successful devotional compositions. Its distinguished provenance, extensive exhibition and publication history, and close relationship to the versions in London, Munich and Vienna secure its place within the broader legacy of Gossaert's devotional oeuvre.

About the sale From Antwerp to Bruges, the Collection of a Flemish Connoisseur

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Auction time 11/04/2026 at 11:00 AM

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