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Pieter Coecke Van Aelst Resting during the Flight...

Price Tax incl.:
16800 EUR

Pieter Coecke Van Aelst Resting during the Flight into Egypt, workshop of Pieter Coecke Van Aelst (1502-1550) Workshop of Pieter Coecke Van Aelst, 16th century Oil on curved oak panel Dimensions: panel: h. 87 cm, w. 56 cm Original molded oak frame Dimensions: h. 100 cm, l. 69 cm Luminous and rich in fresh, tangy colors, our work depicts the Holy Family resting against the backdrop of a verdant landscape. The Virgin, richly dressed in multiple fabrics, is seated in the foreground, holding the infant Jesus in her lap. Joseph, standing slightly back, his hand on Mary's shoulder, looks attentively at the child. Mary, her head covered by a draped turban, her eyes modestly lowered, holds the apple in her right hand, symbolizing the fall of man. Jesus, partially reclining, embraces his mother's arm, but seems intent on evading her embrace. His evasive, pensive gaze indicates that he is undoubtedly pondering his fate. The tight framing of the foreground invites us into the intimacy of the holy family. While the second shot opens onto the rolling panorama of the Flemish countryside, with its fortified villages, transporting us into the distance. The trees, with their twisted trunks and exposed roots, enliven the space and help to create this flight towards the horizon. The work we are presenting is a central panel of a triptych originally accompanied by shutters (now missing or detached) that probably represented the work's donors or commissioners, as in the triptych in the Catharijneconvent museum in Utrecht. Another very similar variant can be found in the church of Saint-Sulpice-et-Saint-Dionysius in Diest (Belgium). Finally, a third version in a private collection is published on p. 234 in Georges Marlier's monograph on Pieter Coeck Van Aelst (G. Marlier, La Renaissance Flamande. Pierre Coeck d'Alost, Brussels 1966). Pieter Coecke van Aelst, or Pieter Coeck d'Alost, born August 14, 1502 in Aalst and died December 6, 1550 in Brussels, was a Flemish painter and architect-scenographer. He apprenticed in Brussels under Bernard van Orley. Between 1521 and 1525, he spent some time in Italy, where he discovered the masterpieces of Antiquity. On his return from Italy in 1527, he settled in Antwerp, where he worked for Jan Van Dornicke, then married his daughter, inheriting his father-in-law's workshop on his death. His workshops enjoyed great renown: engraving, sculpture, theater set design, stained-glass painting, tapestry and jewelry designs - all the plastic arts were put to use. Hans Vredeman de Vries and many others collaborated on production. Coecke van Aelst also trained Pieter Brueghel the Elder, who later married his daughter. In 1539, he began editing a Dutch translation of Sebastiano Serlio's Architettura. Charles V appointed him court painter shortly before his death. Pieter Coecke belonged to the Romanist guild and the Antwerp school, which combined the realism and precision of the Flanders artists with the sense of mise-en-scène of Leonardo da Vinci, for example in The Last Supper of 1531. His methodical approach to Italian Renaissance art facilitated its dissemination in the Southern Netherlands. Although he ran a very active and profitable workshop, very few of his works survive, as some of them were destroyed by Calvinist iconoclasts.

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