DIRCK HENDRICKSZ CENTEN (c.1542-1618) Lot n° 11

(circle) Mary with Child and angels in interior. Oil on canvas. This domestic scene depicts rather rare late 16th century iconography, in which the angels help with the caring tasks for the Christ child. More often angels are depicting while making music. One angel is arranging the cradle, while another is warming a cloth near the fire. Through a vista in the background, the artist provides a view on the activities withing the garden. In 1993, Christie's in Rome presented a similar scene attributed to Dirck Hendricksz Centen (Rome, 30.11.1993, lot 277). In this painting, Centen adds a Saint Anne as well as an additional figure in the doorway at the back left. Another variant of the same composition, with an attribution to the studio of Maerten de Vos (1531-1603), went under the hammer at Aguttes on June 22, 2023 (lot 11). Finally, a third - albeit mirror-image – exists that was attributed by a Spanish auction house to an anonymous master of the Spanish school. The existence of several variants of the same composition, including one mirror-image of the composition, suggests that an important prototype existed, possibly also in print form. The furniture and architecture probably situate the prototype in the Southern Netherlands. This also applies to the anonymous painter, who managed to match Dirck Henricksz Centen in the delicate rendering of the Holy Mary, painting one of the more successful interpretations of this known composition. 97 x 72 cm (128 x 104.5 cm)