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Lot Essay
Gillis Mostaert was a remarkably versatile painter. A descendant of Jan Mostaert, Gillis was active in Antwerp. In addition to supplying the figures for many of Jacob Grimmer's landscapes, he painted landscapes and villages in the manner of Pieter Bruegel I as well as numerous copies after and works inspired by Hieronymus Bosch. Mostaert was thus equally comfortable painting scenes of everyday life, Hellscapes, mythological subjects, and as seen here, biblical subjects.
In the present panel, Mostaert arranges a multitude of figures sweeping across a diagonal as they follow Christ on his journey to Calvary. Bearing his cross on his shoulder, Jesus appears at center surrounded by a group of women and children who clasp their hands in veneration. A muscular soldier stands behind him with a raised club, adopting a pose that mirrors that of the beautiful woman holding her baby directly in front of Christ, thereby framing Jesus between Virtue and Vice. Saint Veronica kneels in the foreground below him, weeping over the Sudarium. In her traditional blue dress, the Virgin Mary swoons into the arms of John the Evangelist at left, accompanied by Saint Anne and the Marys.
In his unpublished dissertation, Kristof Michiels proposed that the present painting should be dated to the 1570s (loc. cit.), comparing it to dated works from this period such as the Market scene on the village square (1579; National Gallery, Prague) and his Scenes from the Passion of Christ (1578, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels). A second, somewhat later version of the work is preserved in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (see E. Mai, op. cit., p. 36, fig. 18), which Ekkehard Mai dates to 1575-89. The Cologne panel is painted in grisaille with additional trompe l’oeil scenes painted over its wooden frame, following a compositional style apparently invented by Mostaert. A weaker version from the artist’s studio was offered 7 July 2022, lot 107.
Dendrochronological analysis by Ian Tyers suggests that this single oak panel, sourced from the Meuse-Rhine valley area, dates from between circa 1551 and 1583 (written report, November 2024).
In the present panel, Mostaert arranges a multitude of figures sweeping across a diagonal as they follow Christ on his journey to Calvary. Bearing his cross on his shoulder, Jesus appears at center surrounded by a group of women and children who clasp their hands in veneration. A muscular soldier stands behind him with a raised club, adopting a pose that mirrors that of the beautiful woman holding her baby directly in front of Christ, thereby framing Jesus between Virtue and Vice. Saint Veronica kneels in the foreground below him, weeping over the Sudarium. In her traditional blue dress, the Virgin Mary swoons into the arms of John the Evangelist at left, accompanied by Saint Anne and the Marys.
In his unpublished dissertation, Kristof Michiels proposed that the present painting should be dated to the 1570s (loc. cit.), comparing it to dated works from this period such as the Market scene on the village square (1579; National Gallery, Prague) and his Scenes from the Passion of Christ (1578, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels). A second, somewhat later version of the work is preserved in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (see E. Mai, op. cit., p. 36, fig. 18), which Ekkehard Mai dates to 1575-89. The Cologne panel is painted in grisaille with additional trompe l’oeil scenes painted over its wooden frame, following a compositional style apparently invented by Mostaert. A weaker version from the artist’s studio was offered 7 July 2022, lot 107.
Dendrochronological analysis by Ian Tyers suggests that this single oak panel, sourced from the Meuse-Rhine valley area, dates from between circa 1551 and 1583 (written report, November 2024).