Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Guilliam van Nieulandt the Younger
The Annunciation to the Shepherds; Christ comforted by the Angels
Lot Closed
March 24, 03:20 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 40,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Guilliam van Nieulandt the Younger
Antwerp 1584 - 1635 Amsterdam
The Annunciation to the Shepherds; Christ comforted by the Angels
the former signed and dated lower left: GVIL NIEVLANT 1635
a pair, both oil on panel, with a prepared gessoed reverse
unframed, each: 54.5 x 71.5 cm.; 21 1/2 x 28 1/8 in.
framed, each: 71.5 x 88.3 cm.; 28 1/8 x 34 3/4 in.
2
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 30 October 1978, lot 418, where purchased for the Wieg collection.
Guilliam van Nieulandt the Younger came from a Catholic family of artists from Antwerp, who moved to Amsterdam in 1589. After two years of apprenticeship there with the painter Jacob Savery, he travelled to Rome, where he lived with his uncle Guilliam (or Willem) van Nieulandt the Elder (1560-1626), who was also an artist and remained in the city until his death in 1626. In Rome, besides learning from his uncle, Van Nieulandt was also a pupil of Paul Bril for at least a year. He moved back to Antwerp in 1604 and there divided his attention between several branches of the Arts: painting, printmaking and playwriting - he was considered by Antwerp contemporaries as the city's most successful playwright. As a painter and printmaker, Van Nieulandt focused mainly on Italianate landscapes, some of which also include mythological or biblical scenes. In 1629, he moved to Amsterdam where he set up his painting studio, and worked there until his death in 1635. The present pair of paintings are therefore among his last.
This pair is somewhat atypical within Van Nieulandt's œuvre, as the main focus of both works is on the religious narratives, rather than the landscapes surrounding them. Though undoubtedly conceived as a pair, the link between the scenes remains unclear. In the Annunciation to the Shepherds, Van Nieulandt depicts a large group of shepherds and shepherdesses surrounded by their cattle on the edge of a forest, the angel and putti, upper left, shining so brightly that the midnight sky appears as if it is day. The signed Christ comforted by the Angels is a scene from the life of Christ that is rarely depicted. The Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 4:1-11) describes how Christ is led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where he is tempted by the Devil. After resisting temptation for forty days, Christ is attended to by angels who appear before Him with fruits. Van Nieulandt's interest in this particular subject is also attested to by the etching he made of the Temptation of Christ of circa 1606-28.1