Jan Massys (Antwerp c. 1509-1575)

Susannah and the Elders

Details

Jan Massys (Antwerp c. 1509-1575)
Susannah and the Elders
partially signed(?) and dated(?) '.ANNO : 1 IOHAN' (on the base of the plinth)
oil on panel
51.5/8 x 43¾in. (131.2 x 111.2cm.)

Provenance

Heugel Collection.
with Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1905 (100 Paintings by Old Masters, no. 20, illustrated).
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, 14 Dec. 1977, lot 52A, as signed and dated 1556 (£37,000).
Anon. sale, De Vuyst, Lokeren, 20 Oct. 1984, lot 285 (£120,000).

Literature

L. van Puyvelde, La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et de Brueghel, Brussels and Paris, 1962, pp. 194-6.
A.P. de Mirimonde, Jan Massys dans les musées de provinces franais, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 104, 1962, p. 550.
L. Buijnsters-Smets, Jan Massys, Zwolle, 1995, pp. 184-5, no. 29, illustrated.

Lot Essay

Only remnants of the signature and date, said to be present when the picture was offered at Sotheby's in 1977, are now visible.

Leontine Buijnsters-Smets includes the picture as a fully autograph work in her catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan Massys. She draws attention to some elements more characteristic of works earlier than 1556, the date which she had been led to believe was on the picture but which she thought might not have been original.

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