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Lot Essay
In the present work an angel crowns the two seated figures, identifiable as Justice, who holds the scales in her right hand, - and Peace, accompanied by a Dove carrying an olive branch. The subject, popular among artists of the 16th century, recalls the Biblical text of Psalm 85, Verse 11.
This painting can be compared with Backer's The Judgement of Midas (private collection) and Earthly Paradise (Groeningen Museum, Bruges, Inv. no. 0230) both dated by Justus Mller Hofstede to the 1580s. The success of the composition is attested to by the variants and copies of the painting in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, Inv. no. 6 (in which the figures are seated beside a sculpture on a plinth), and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Augsburg, Inv. no. 4950.
When offered at the Dorotheum, Vienna, in 1994 this painting was accompanied by a certificate comfirming the attribution, dated 25 August 1991 from J. Mller-Hofstede.
This painting can be compared with Backer's The Judgement of Midas (private collection) and Earthly Paradise (Groeningen Museum, Bruges, Inv. no. 0230) both dated by Justus Mller Hofstede to the 1580s. The success of the composition is attested to by the variants and copies of the painting in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp, Inv. no. 6 (in which the figures are seated beside a sculpture on a plinth), and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Augsburg, Inv. no. 4950.
When offered at the Dorotheum, Vienna, in 1994 this painting was accompanied by a certificate comfirming the attribution, dated 25 August 1991 from J. Mller-Hofstede.