Lot 53: FOLLOWER OF QUINTEN MASSYS

MADONNA AND CHILD SEATED BEFORE A LEDGE

46.5 by 33 cm.; 18 1/4 by 13 in.

oil on panel

Bolton, Lancashire, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Bolton Art Patrons Exhibition, 1-27 September 1967, no. 2, as 'School of Mabuse.'

Edward George Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron of Glossop (1818-1883);
Thence by direct family descent.

The composition is known in a number of versions, all of which are of differing degrees of quality and all of which appear to be by different hands. Hitherto unpublished, this is amongst the most accomplished of the versions. Although none are now considered autograph works, several of these versions have variously been attributed to Massys in the past; E. Voigtländer, in 1922, and Max J. Friedländer, in 1929, attributed to him the version in Oslo, National Gallery, (1) although Friedländer later rescinded his support, grouping it stylistically with the version in Basel, Burckhardt-Bachofen collection (2), which he considered possibly by the Master of the Mansi Magdalene. The majority of the versions, as here, include the ledge laid with cherries and other fruit, although several, including those in Lisbon and sold in these Rooms in 2007, (4) omit the ledge. Other versions variously include the figure of St. Joseph and a landscape or window in the background. The design was also used by Jan Gossaert, for example in his Holy Family in Houston, Museum of Fine Arts. (5)

1. See A. de Bosque, Quentin Metsys, Brussels 1975, pp. 138-9, reproduced p. 300, fig. 141.
2. Idem, p. 137, reproduced p. 299, fig. 139.
3. Idem, p. 139, reproduced p. 301, fig. 144.
4. Anonymous sale ('Property from a Private Collection'), London, Sotheby's 6 December 2007, lot 130.
5. Inv. no. 59-27; see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. VIII, Leiden/Brussels 1972, p. 96, no. 42, reproduced plate 38.