Master Paintings & Sculpture Part I
Live Auction: 28 January 2021 • 10:00 AM EST • New York
T his January’s marquee sale of Master Paintings and Sculpture is led by two masterpieces of art history: the magnificent Botticelli Portrait of a Youth Holding a Roundel and Rembrandt’s intimate painting of Abraham and the Angels. The sale includes a strong selection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, including still lifes by Rachel Ruysch, Willem van Aelst, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and Willem Claesz. Heda as well as impressive portraits by Aert de Gelder and Sir Anthony van Dyck.
An incredibly rare canvas of the Descent from the Cross by Hugo van der Goes leads the Renaissance section, which also includes works from the great early Italian painters Apollonio di Giovanni, Taddeo di Bartolo, and Sano di Pietro. The sale also includes a number of important paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries, including a pair of large landscapes by Hubert Robert, a charming painting by William Bouguereau, and a large-scale gold ground by Frederic, Lord Leighton.
Auction Highlights
Visit the Exhibition
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Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, called Sandro Botticelli
Portrait of a young man holding a roundel
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The Ultimate Renaissance Portrait
In exceptionally good condition, this painting of a Young Man Holding a Roundel embodies Sandro Botticelli’s greatest achievements as a portraitist. Were it not for his fashionable tunic, the supremely elegant individual depicted here could have stepped out of one of Botticelli’s mythological or religious paintings, so striking is his resemblance to the beautiful figures that inhabit those works. Innovative in form and at the same time wholly characteristic of Botticelli’s genius, this timeless masterpiece dates to the height of his career. It represents the perfect visual expression of late quattrocento Florentine culture, yet the crisp simplicity of its setting and the lifelike presence of the sitter renders it profoundly modern.
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