CIRCLE OF MICHAEL SWEERTS | PLAGUE IN AN ANCIENT CITY

This painting follows Michael Sweerts' ambitious masterpiece of the same title, formerly in the collection of Saul P. Steinberg¹ and now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.² That painting, also on canvas and of nearly identical dimensions, illustrates Sweerts' admiration for Nicolas Poussin and was among the last paintings he made in Rome, where he worked from 1646 until about 1654-1655. That the present canvas follows the original so closely suggests the artist responsible worked directly in front of Sweerts' own.   We are grateful to Dr. Lara Yeager-Crasselt for her assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

1. Sold New York, Sotheby's, January 30, 1997, lot 34.

2. 118.7 by 170.8 cm, inv. no. AC 1997.10.1. See R. Kultzen, Michael Sweerts, Doornspijk 1996, pp. 6, 19, 40, 41, 106-107, cat. no. 63, reproduced in color plate XIX.