Pieter Coecke van Aelst I Aelst (now Aalst) 1502 - 1550 Brussels

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Description

Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder
a triptych:central panel: the adoration of the magileft wing: saint josephright wing: balthasar
oil on oak panel, upper margins made up

Provenance

Private collection, Spain;
Acquired by the father of the present owner in 1970.

Literature

E. Bermejo, 'Pinturas inéditas de Pieter Coecke, conservadas en Espana', in Archivo Español de Arte, no. 214, 1981, p. 123, reproduced p. 122, figure 6, as in a private collection, Madrid.

Catalogue Note

The composition of this triptych by Pieter Coecke van Aelst is entirely unique in the artist's oeuvre. In almost all of the artist's other half-length treatments of the subject the figures are arranged in reverse, with the Virgin positioned on the right (or in a few cases, centre) of the central panel, the Magi approaching from the left, and Saint Joseph depicted in the right wing. No other autograph versions share the same arrangement of figures in the central panel, though the disposition of the Virgin and Child and Caspar is repeated in a studio work sold in Amsterdam, Christie's, 13 November 1990, lot 140. The inspiration for the lateral figures of Saint Joseph and Balthasar may derive (though also in reverse) from a treatment of the subject in the Catharijne Convent, Utrecht (see G. Marlier, Pierre Coeck D'Alost, Brussels 1966, pp. 146-148, reproduced p. 147, fig. 77), traditionally given by Paul Leprieur to