An extensive Italianate Landscape with Shepherds and Goatherds driving their Flocks, the Supper at Emmaus depicted beyond

The present picture follows a composition by Paul Bril known in three versions: one, dated 1617, is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 1121); another is in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (inv. 452); and a third was, in 1965, in a private collection, Genoa (exhibited in Utrecht in 1965, no. 4, illustrated). Ryckaert, who probably worked in Rome from about 1605 until 1610, presumably knew Bril's work, but it was not until Ryckaert's return to Antwerp that he began executing replicas of Bril's compositions. Another version of this composition by Ryckaert is known (see Y. Thiery, Les peintres flamands de paysage au XVIIe siècle, Brussels, 1986, p. 111, incorrectly identified as the work of Willem van Nieulandt); the differences, however, between Bril's and Ryckaert's work are notable. Both versions by Ryckaert are painted on panel, a support which Bril apparently never used. Additionally, Ryckaert's rendering of the scene is clearer and crisper while the colouring is somewhat less bold.

We are grateful to Drs. Luuk Pijl for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.