CIRCLE OF ADAM VAN NOORT | CHRIST'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT

With Jim's Antiques Ltd., New Jersey;

Where acquired by the present owner, 2003.

Likely executed in the early 1600s, this painting of Christ's Sermon on the Mount seems to be inspired by a now lost painting by Adam van Noort, the son of a designer of stained-glass window designer and engraver. In 1587, he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in his hometown of Antwerp, where he also established a studio that remained active until late in his life. Among his most acclaimed pupils were the Flemish Baroque painters Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens.

Though of a different subject and format, this painting relates to Van Noort's The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist in the Rubenshuis, Antwerp ^[1], as well as to two other works attributed to Van Noort, one formerly in the collection of Mary van Berg, New York ^[2] and the other in a private collection, Madrid ^[3]. The numerous variants of this composition bear witness to its popularity, further emphasized by its appearance within Willem van Haecht II’s The Cabinet of Cornelis van der Geest in the Rubenshuis, Antwerp ^[4].

^1. Oil on oak panel, 97 by 155 cm. See: https://search.rubenshuis.be/Details/collect/6610

^2. Oil on panel, 123 by 123 cm. See: https://rkd.nl/explore/images/201089

^3. 119 by 118 cm. See J. O. Butler, "Dos tablas flamencas del siglo XVI en Madrid" in Miscelanea de arte, Madrid 1982, pp. 100-01, reproduced figs. 2 & 3.

^4. Oil on panel, 102.5 by 137.5 cm. See: https://search.rubenshuis.be/Details/collect/6653