Flemish School, 15th Century

With Bourgeois, Paris 1914;
Mme. Jos. Fiévez, Brussels.

M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, Leiden 1972, vol. II, p. 81, cat. no. 104, reproduced, plate 106 (as Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, circa 1470, present location unknown).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This beautiful panel is flat and un-reinforced on the reverse, and the oak has preserved the gesso and paint layer beautifully. The painting is quite dirty but the condition of the paint layer throughout is clearly extremely good. There are only a few discolored retouches in the green cloak on both the right and left side, and a few spots of retouch in his brown shirt. The painting should be cleaned, at which point the few retouches that would be required could be carefully added. Nonetheless, there is no question that the painting is in beautiful condition.
"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."

This striking depiction of a male saint, with his right hand in an oratorical gesture, is probably a representation of St. John the Baptist.  The saint is shown wearing his usual brown hairshirt undergarment, but is stripped bare of any of his usual attributes such as his reed cross or baptismal cup.  The oak panel is barbed on all four sides indicating that the panel has not been cut down and that this is the original format of the picture.  The lavishly patterned fabric background is unusual, though certainly not unique, and can be compared to the background in an earlier representation of St. John the Baptist by Robert Campin in the Cleveland Museum of Art.¹

Examination of this painting under infrared reflectography reveals a beautiful and highly detailed underdrawing (see fig 1).  Paint analysis of the present work has shown that the green pigments make heavy use of a mixture in which lead-tin yellow is the primary component and that none of the original paints contain any pigment anachronisms.  The presence of lead-tin yellow is particularly significant as it was a pigment employed by artists from very early and up until the late 17^th century.  It began to be replaced by other yellows and eventually the formula for lead-tin yellow was lost and appears to have disappeared by the early nineteenth century.  It was not rediscovered until the mid-20^th century.

A full written report of the paint analysis by John Twilley, Art Conservation Scientist, accompanies this lot.

 

1.  See M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol II, Leiden 1972, plate 141, fig. 149, reproduced.