Lot Essay
We are grateful to drs. Luuk Pijl for his assistance in cataloguing this lot, and for suggesting a date of circa 1605-6.
The painting has been described as an autograph variant of one of Rottenhammer's undisputed masterpieces, The Feast of the Gods of 1600 in The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, albeit with the composition reversed. Writing in the catalogue of the important recent exhibition on the artist, Hans Borggrefe has suggested that Rottenhammer may have included his own self-portrait as the central figure of the god Bacchus borne by fauns (op. cit., p. 142).
The painting has been described as an autograph variant of one of Rottenhammer's undisputed masterpieces, The Feast of the Gods of 1600 in The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, albeit with the composition reversed. Writing in the catalogue of the important recent exhibition on the artist, Hans Borggrefe has suggested that Rottenhammer may have included his own self-portrait as the central figure of the god Bacchus borne by fauns (op. cit., p. 142).