Christ washing the Disciples' feet

Details

Jan van Bijlert (Utrecht 1603-1671)
Christ washing the Disciples' feet
signed 'Jv bijlert. fe:' ('Jv' linked, lower left)
oil on canvas
46¼ x 66 3/8 in. (117.5 x 168.8 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 14 August 1942, lot 152.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 16 July 1958, lot 86.
J. Hamilton-Hunser; Christie's, London, 15 July 1960, lot 148, where purchased for 180 gns. by
James O. Belden, Washington, D.C.

Literature

G.J. Hoogerwerff, 'Jan van Bijlert, Schilder van Utrecht (1598-1671)' in Oud Holland, CXXX, 1965, no. 13, fig. 18.
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, Oxford, 1979, p. 27.
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, ed. L. Vertova, Turin, 1989, I, p. 70; III, fig. 1351.
P. Huys-Janssen, Jan van Bijlert 1597/8-1671, London, 1998, p. 104, no. 24; p. 302, pl. 115.

Special notice

Christie's interest in property consigned for sale. Christie's generally offers property consigned by others for sale at public auction. From time to time, lots are offered which Christie's International Plc or one of it's subsidiary companies owns in whole or in part. Each such lot is offered subject to a reserve. This is such a lot.

Lot Essay

Huys-Janssen dates the present painting to 1645-55 and compares the frieze-like format of the company to some of Nicolas Poussin's compositions, such as his Baptism by John the Baptist, painted circa 1637-8 and the series of the Seven Sacraments of circa 1644-7, now in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

In a second signed treatment of this subject, formerly with Appleby Brothers, London, Bijlert concentrates on the relationship between Christ and the seated saint, with Saint James the Greater prominently placed in the foreground. Instead of the disciples observing this act of obeyance as shown in the present painting, the remaining apostles are shown eating at a table beyond (see Nicolson, op. cit., 1989, II, no. 1344).

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