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CORNELIS VAN CLEVE (Antwerp, 1520-1567)
VIRGIN AND CHILD WIT…
See original version (French)
10
-
CORNELIS VAN CLEVE (Antwerp, 1520-1567)
VIRGIN AND CHILD WIT…
See original version (French)
Estimate €150,000 - €200,000
Voluntary lot
Description
CORNELIS VAN CLEVE (Antwerp, 1520-1567)
VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH LITTLE SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST IN FRONT OF A BLUE CURTAIN
Oak panel, one board, not parqueted
The Virgin and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist in front of a blue curtain, oak panel
63,80 x 51,20 CM - 25,1 x 20,2 IN.
PROVENANCE
Galerie Koller, Zurich, 22 March 2024, no. 3016 (as studio of Cornelis van Cleve)
Our panel is a precious testimony to the introduction of the Italian High Renaissance to Flanders. The composition is based on a model by Andrea del Sarto, the Madonna Corsini, very popular in the 16th century, now lost but known from various copies [1]. The motif may have originated in Florence, but Cornelis van Cleve's interpretation of it is from Antwerp and reflects a Flemish sensibility: the clarity of the outlines, the harmonious organisation of the figures and the attention paid to decorative effects are a far cry from the Italian sfumato, in favour of a more precise and structured reading.
Stricken with mental problems around 1550, Cornelis stopped painting shortly afterwards, and his work was long confused with that of his father Joos van Cleve (1485-1541). As early as 1943, the art historian Max Jacob Friedländer reconstructed an initial body of work by our artist [2], separating it from that of his father. He insisted on his Italianism, without necessarily having made a trip to the Peninsula, as many ultramontane models were circulating in Antwerp at the time.
He reproduced another version of our composition with a landscape [3]. Another version with clouds behind the canopy is in the Chrysler Museum of Art [4], incorporating a rounded base that is also present in our work. At the time of its sale in Zurich in 2024, it was described as being by the workshop of Cornelis van Cleve after consultation with the specialist John Hand, an opinion that he had given on the basis of a photograph.
We are grateful to John Hand for kindly confirming the authenticity of this painting by email on digital photography on 31 March 2026 and as belonging to the group formed by Max J. Friedländer under the name of Cornelis van Cleve.
[1] John Sherman, Andrea del Sarto, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1965, n° 32, pp. 217-119.
[2] MJ Friedländer, Nachtträgliches zu Cornelis van Cleve, in Oud Holland, LX, 1943, pp. 7-14; Early Netherlandish Painting, IXa, 1972, pp. 44, 49-50, 72-74.
[3] Sale in Vienna, Dorotheum, 27 April 2013, no. 566; and sale in Paris, Artcurial, 26 November 2024, no. 14.
[4] Donation the Irene Leache Memorial collection, inv. no. 2014.3.4
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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