Apollo enthroned, presented with the gifts of the Continents and Oceans

The present lot has been examined by Dr. Ursula Hrting, who has confirmed the attribution to Hans Jordaens III in a letter dated 29 November 1989. Dr. Hrting notes that the composition derives from a smaller work of 1629 by Frans Francken II (Landesmuseum, Oldenburg, signed and dated), with whom Jordaens collaborated on occasion (see for example, U. Hrting, Frans Francken II - Die Gemlde, Freren, 1989, no. 9; and J. Denuc, Inventare Antwerpener Kunstsammlungen, 1932, p. 46, a Paradise and an Expulsion). She dates the picture to very shortly after Francken's prototype, either in the same year, or in the early 1630s. Dr. Hrting compares the treatment of the figures with those in Jordaens' Meeting of Jacob and Joseph of 1636 (Muse des Beaux-Arts, Brest, inv. no. 62-1-1) and his Continence of Scipio (Hrting, op. cit., no. 328).