Denys Calvaert

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine copper panel that has never been dented. Although there has been some past flaking and certain areas have raised paint at the moment, the overall condition is remarkably good. The lovely unworn state of the central figures and much of the surrounding architecture and foreground is rare. The central dark drapery of St. Joseph has clearly been liable to flake in the past, and has at present some loose and a few recently lost flakes. The upper sky has had lost flakes in the past, with several old retouched fillings, but seems quite secure, even though the granular texture of the pigment and the extra medium it needed gives it a less smooth surface. The blue smalt glass pigment used in the sky has grown greyer, as does tend to happen. There are also one or two other old retouched losses: at the base edge in the lower left corner and a small retouched chip in the other base corner. The craquelure is accentuated in the lower drapery of the Madonna, where there may have been raised paint, and slightly around the Child, stemming perhaps from earlier workings or pentimenti. The figure of St Stephen is exceptionally finely intact, as is the delicate glazing in the modelling of the Madonna and Child. The foreground detail and all the architecture are also fine and unworn. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Hitherto unrecorded and unpublished, this copper is a fine example of Calvaert's small scale devotional works. As the inscription suggests Calvaert was born in Antwerp, but had settled in Bologna as eary as 1560 and was to remain there for the rest of his life.  Although also an accomplished painter of large scale altarpieces, it was in private devotional works such as this that he was able to combine the colour and detailed finish of his Flemish heritage with the mannerist tradition in his adopted Bologna, where he had trained under Prospero Fontana and Lorenzo Sabatini. In its simple pyramidal design and softly rounded features it is typical of Calvaert's work in Bologna after 1580, when the influence of Federico Barocci can be readily detected. It may be compared to other works of his maturity, for example the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of 1590 in Rome, Musei Capitolini, and the Holy Family with Saint John of 1584 in a Bolognese private collection, in which the contraposto pose of the Virgin is very similar.¹

1. For which see, for example, D. Benati ed., Pittura Bolognese del '500, vol. II, Bologna 1986, p. 685, reproduced pp. 694 and 697.