Lot 116: The Supper at Emmaus

Joachim Wtewael (Utrecht 1566-1638) The Supper at Emmaus oil on copper, oval 4½ x 3½ in. (11.4 x 8.9 cm.)

11.4 x 8.9 cm.

Poughkeepsie, NY, Vassar College, Dutch Mannerism, 15 April-7 June 1970 (catalogue by Wolfgang Stechow), no. 99.

A. Lowenthal, 'Wtewael's Moses and Dutch Mannerism', Studies in the History of Art, VI, Washington D.C., 1974, p. 133, note 9. A. Lowenthal, Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism, Doornspijk, 1986, pp. 47, 51, 109-110, no. A-34, fig. 48, and Appendix C, p. 207.

(Possibly) Izaak van den Hoogenbergh; his sale, Amsterdam, 10 April 1743, lot 127 (10 florins). Art Market, London, about 1960, as 'Flemish school', where acquired by James O. Belden, Washington, D.C., and by descent.

By Wtewael’s day, the tradition of depicting the Supper at Emmaus in European art was longstanding. As noted by Anne Lowenthal, who dates this work to around 1603-1608, Wtewael was here inspired by earlier engravings, namely Albrecht Dürer’s version of the subject from the Small Passion (see Hollstein VII, no. 130.157; Lowenthal 1986, op. cit., p. 109). For nocturnal effects, he likely also found inspiration in Italian precedents by Jacopo Bassano (see Christie’s, London, 6 July 2010, lot 37; Stechow, loc. cit.). Wtewael himself depicted the scene multiple times: a composition of similar size and shape, also on copper, is now in a Private Collection, New York (see Lowenthal 1986, op. cit., p. 109, no. A-33). Examining the two works side by side, Lowenthal suggests that the New York picture is the first version, while the present work is an entirely autograph replica by Wtewael himself (verbal communication, 13 November 2013). Wtewael’s fascination with the subject was shared by his contemporaries such as Caravaggio, who painted examples in 1601 (London, National Gallery, inv. NG172) and 1606 (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera). Closer to home, Wtewael’s composition may have proved influential for his fellow Utrecht master Abraham Bloemaert, who depicted the subject in 1622 (Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts, inv. 695). While in the Belden collection, the present painting was included in Wolfgang Stechow’s groundbreaking exhibition of 1970 held at Vassar College, Dutch Mannerism: Apogee and Epilogue, the first exhibition on Dutch Mannerism held in the United States. We are grateful to Anne W. Lowenthal with her assistance in the cataloguing of this work.