The Flaying of Marsyas

Details

Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657)
The Flaying of Marsyas
with indistinct signature Poelenberg/A. over remnants of another signature B..; dated 1638 lower right
oil on panel
56.4 x 45.2 cm

Provenance

Symonds, His sale Sotheby's London, 6 July 1927, lot 7.
Dr J.de Jong, Tilburg, 1939;
thence by descent to the late owner.

Literature

M.Roethlisberger, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, 1981, p.102, no.312, as by an imitator.

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20.825% of the hammer price for lots with values up to NLG 200,000. If the hammer price exceeds the NLG 200,000 then the premium is calculated at 20.825% of the first NLG 200,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of NLG 200,000.

Lot Essay

As observed by M.Roethlisberger, loc.cit. the present lot was only known to him by a photograph. Based on the letter B underneath the Poelenburch signature, and on the basis of comparison with the landscape with a sacrificial scene of 1631 in the Hermitage (M.Roethlisberger, op.cit., p.60, no.138, ill.) the picture is here proposed as an early work by the artist dating from the same time as the Hermitage picture. The face of the shepherd in the foreground of the latter painting is similar to those of the nymphs in the present lot. Both scenes depict executions.

The subject is taken from Ovid, Metamorphoses VI:394.

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