Lot 76: The Last Supper

Pieter Pourbus (?Gouda 1523/24-1584 Bruges) The Last Supper oil on panel 63 x 77 in. (160 x 195.2 cm.)

Antwerp, Kunstwerken uit Antwerpsche Verzamelingen, 1935, no. 168. Maastricht, Pictura, no. 38.

David Reder, Antwerp, circa 1935; Duprez, Brussels, 6-7 December 1938, lot 51, as Adam van Noort (presumably unsold).
David (and Jacob) Reder, Brussels.
Confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (after May 1940) and transferred to Germany.
Munich Central Collecting Point (No. 21497).
Returned to Belgium, 25 August 1949 (ORE No. A395), and restituted to
David (and Jacob) Reder, 16 December 1949.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 26 November 1984, lot 56, as Adam van Noort.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 14 November 1990, lot 48, as Adam van Noort.
Acquired by the present owner in 1991.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN


This remarkably preserved panel is one of a small number of depictions of the subject by Peter Pourbus, the leading artist of Bruges in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Together, they constitute some of the boldest images in the artist's oeuvre. Five depictions of the Last Supper are known by the artist, including the 1559 triptych of The Brothers of the Sacrament (Bruges, St. Salvatorskerk) and that of 1562 in the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, Bruges. All are on the same grand scale as the present painting and are likely, as the St. Salvatorskerk painting remains, originally to have been part of triptychs.

The general idea for Pourbus' depictions of the theme derives from the composition, known in numerous versions and copies, by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, of which the earliest known example dates from 1529 (Belvoir Castle, Duke of Rutland), some twenty years before Pourbus' first treatment of it (1549; Belgium, private collection). However, Coecke's composition served only very loosely as the basis of Pourbus' various interpetations (although it shares a closer affinity to the St. Salvatorskerk work than the later depictions). It is likely that Pourbus employed other sources for his treatments, for example the engraving by Cornelis Teunisz. The present picture is closer - with its more compressed arrangement of the figures - compositionally to the 1562 painting; both paintings also have Aertsen-influenced background interior scenes, although the present picture's more demonstrably Aertsen-like handling suggests that it may be the later of the two, and should therefore tentatively be dated to circa 1565.

Pourbus' treatments of The Last Supper had a demonstrable impact on his contemporaries. Within a short space of time from his work on the theme numerous other examples - for the most part independent compositions (with the apparent exception of a painting by his pupil, Anthuenis [Antoon] Claeissins, in the Sint Gilliskerk, Bruges), but still clearly owing to Pourbus in their scale and dramatic effect - had been painted by artists including perhaps most notably Willem Key (Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum) and Adriaen Thomasz. Key (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten).