Circle of Jan van Scorel

Mrs. Stanford White (1862-1950; née Bessie Springs Smith), New York;

By whom donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910;

By whom deaccessioned ("Property from an Estate sold for the Benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York"), New York, Christie's, 11 January 1989, lot 170 (as Attributed to Jan van Scorel);

With David Koetser, Zurich (as Jan van Scorel);

From whom acquired by Hans and Marion König, 1990.

B. Burroughs, in "A Flemish Painting of the Sixteenth Century," in Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 5 (1910), pp. 77-78, reproduced (as School of Joachim Patinir, mid-16th century);

B. Burroughs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue of Paintings, New York 1920, p. 183 (as Jan Gossaert);

H.B. Wehle and M. Salinger, A Catalogue of Early Flemish, Dutch and German Paintings, New York 1947, pp. 148-149, cat. no. 10.8, reproduced (as Jan van Scorel);

A. Smart, The Renaissance and Mannerism in Northern Europe and Spain, London 1972, p. 9, reproduced fig. 3 (as Jan van Scorel);

K. Baetjer, European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Summary Catalogue, New York 1980, vol. I, p. 170; vol. III, p. 359, cat. no. 10.8, reproduced (as Jan van Scorel).

Executed by a member of Jan van Scorel’s circle, this intriguing depiction of the Garden of Eden is based on an engraving of the subject by Marcantonio Raimondi, which adapts the figure of Adam from a drawing by Raphael, today in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Recent infrared reflectography has revealed that the design was transferred to the panel from a pattern drawing, rather than rendered as a free-hand sketch. The painting adheres closely to the underdrawing, except for the serpent, who has been omitted from the final composition. The curious exclusion adds an element of narrative ambiguity to the scene as it appears to be Adam who offers Eve the apple, rather than Eve tempting Adam to taste the Forbidden Fruit, as is the iconographic standard.

In the past, scholars have offered varying attributions for the present painting. In 1909, for instance, the year before the work was donated by Stanford White’s wife to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Max J. Friedländer associated it with Joachim Patinir, likely due to the beautiful landscape populated by swans, rabbits, deer, and other animals.¹  

¹ According to a note in the deaccessioned work's curatorial file.