Artus Wolffort Antwerp 1581 - 1641

Georges Hulin de Loo;
His sale, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 29 October 1947, lot 124 (as Pieter van Mol);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 20 April 1988, lot 43, where acquired for £16,000 by the present owner.

H. Vlieghe, "Zwischen van Veen und Rubens: Artus Wolffort (1581-1641) ein vergessener Antwerpener Maler", in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, vol. XXXIX, 1977, reproduced fig. 12;
J.S. Held, "Noch Einmal Artus Wolffort", in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, vol. XLII, pp. 143-6

The inscription and roman numerals refer to the twelfth and last verse of the apostles' creed.  Since each article is usually associated with one of the apostles, this suggests that a complete set of apostles by Wolffort once existed (of which this is one).  At least nine from the series still existed in 1947, since there were eight others in the Hulin de Loo sale (see Provenance), as lots 116 to 123. The group had been given to Pieter van Mol and it was not until Prof. Hans Vlieghe's article in 1977 that they were properly recognised as the works of Wolffort. Vlieghe dates the series to circa 1616, at the beginnnig of Wolffort's activity in Antwerp, while Held is in favour of a slightly later dating of circa 1620-5.