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Lot Essay
First recognized by Dr. Klaus Ertz after the removal of an obscuring varnish, and included in the addendum to his catalogue raisonné of the works of Jan Breughel the Elder in 2010, this composition was a favoured collaboration between Rottenhammer and Breughel, and is known in several versions of similar dimensions to the present work, but usually painted on copper - a panel support is exceptional. Ertz believes the earliest version to be that in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no. L760; also shown at the Staatsgalerie, Augsburg), on copper, 33 x 44 cm, which he dates to circa 1605 (op. cit., II, 2008-2009, pp. 559-60, no. 260). Although the attribution to Rottenhammer of the Munich work was published by a number of authors (Peltzer, 1916, dating it to the period following 1606; Mai, 1976, to 1598; Schlichtenmaier, 1988, to 1595-1596), Ertz was the first to identify the handling of the landscape as typical of Jan Breughel the Elder. Another version on copper, 33 x 48.5 cm., is described by Ertz as of 'gleich hohem Niveau' (of the same high quality) and dated to circa 1608 (op. cit., II, p. 561, no. 260a; Lempertz, Cologne, 19 November 2011, lot 1227, EUR 180,000). The present work, unknown to Ertz at the time of his first publication of the type, is also dated by him to circa 1608.
The catalogue of the monographic exhibition Hans Rottenhammer: Begehrt - Vergessen - Neu Entdeckt, held at the Weserrenaissance-Museum at Schlo Brake, in Lemgo, Germany, and at the Národni galerie, Prague, 17 August 2008-22 February 2009, enumerates ten copies of varying dimensions and supports, by Rottenhammer's studio, circle and later followers, illustrating the widespread popularity of the invention (M. Jandlová, in H. Borgrefe et al., exhibition catalogue, op. cit., pp. 124-6). Ertz lists a further version by Jan Brueghel the Younger and a Follower of Rottenhammer, seen by him in a private collection in Hamburg in 1993 (op. cit., IV, p. 1670, under addendum no. 30*, addendum fig. 30/1).
The invention of the composition is documented in a delicate pen-and-wash drawing by Rottenhammer, now in the Národni galerie, Prague (Borggrefe et al., op. cit., fig. 174). Stylistically it is inspired by Rottenhammer's crucial period in Venice (circa 1589 and 1595-6), where he fell under the powerful influence of Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. Titian's Baptism of 1512 (Wethey, 1969, I), painted for Giovanni Ram, as well as Tintoretto's treatment of the subject, painted in 1580 for the church of San Silvestro, Venice and Veronese's picture of 1583-4 (Florence, Palazzo Pitti), all represent the Venetian interpretation of the subject which feeds into Rottenhammer's (Jandlová, loc. cit.).
Jan Breughel the Elder and Rottenhammer were not only collaborators but close friends, part of a tight-knit circle of Northern artists in Rome in the 1580s and 1590s, which also included Matthijs and Paul Bril (see lots 6 and 7). Although Breughel returned to Antwerp from Rome in 1596, by which time Rottenhammer himself was in Venice, the two kept up a fertile collaboration via late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century post: one artist would begin the work, and then put the panel in the post to his collaborator in Antwerp, Venice or Germany (where Rottenhammer was from 1606), or Rome (where Bril remained, also often collaborating with both artists), who would complete the work. This practice is documented as early as 1610, as well as by the artists' biographer, Carlo Ridolfi, in 1648 (see S. Bedoni, Jan Brueghel in Italia e il Collezionismo del Seicento, Florence, 1983, and L. Pijl, 'Paintings by Paul Bril in collaboration with Rottenhammer, Elsheimer and Rubens', The Burlington Magazine, CXL, 1998, pp. 660-7). An early example is the Winter landscape by Breughel and Rottenhammer in the Ambrosiana, Milan, dated to circa 1596, which repeats the motif of the Holy Spirit descending from God the Father in Paradise with angels, perhaps suggesting a slightly earlier date for the present work, when Rottenhammer was still in Venice. This is the case for the collaboration between Rottenhammer and Breughel on the Feast of the Gods, signed and dated 'Gio. Rottenhammer 1602 F. in Venetia', sold at Christie's, Paris, 21 June 2012, lot 15 (Euros 1,241,000).
The catalogue of the monographic exhibition Hans Rottenhammer: Begehrt - Vergessen - Neu Entdeckt, held at the Weserrenaissance-Museum at Schlo Brake, in Lemgo, Germany, and at the Národni galerie, Prague, 17 August 2008-22 February 2009, enumerates ten copies of varying dimensions and supports, by Rottenhammer's studio, circle and later followers, illustrating the widespread popularity of the invention (M. Jandlová, in H. Borgrefe et al., exhibition catalogue, op. cit., pp. 124-6). Ertz lists a further version by Jan Brueghel the Younger and a Follower of Rottenhammer, seen by him in a private collection in Hamburg in 1993 (op. cit., IV, p. 1670, under addendum no. 30*, addendum fig. 30/1).
The invention of the composition is documented in a delicate pen-and-wash drawing by Rottenhammer, now in the Národni galerie, Prague (Borggrefe et al., op. cit., fig. 174). Stylistically it is inspired by Rottenhammer's crucial period in Venice (circa 1589 and 1595-6), where he fell under the powerful influence of Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto. Titian's Baptism of 1512 (Wethey, 1969, I), painted for Giovanni Ram, as well as Tintoretto's treatment of the subject, painted in 1580 for the church of San Silvestro, Venice and Veronese's picture of 1583-4 (Florence, Palazzo Pitti), all represent the Venetian interpretation of the subject which feeds into Rottenhammer's (Jandlová, loc. cit.).
Jan Breughel the Elder and Rottenhammer were not only collaborators but close friends, part of a tight-knit circle of Northern artists in Rome in the 1580s and 1590s, which also included Matthijs and Paul Bril (see lots 6 and 7). Although Breughel returned to Antwerp from Rome in 1596, by which time Rottenhammer himself was in Venice, the two kept up a fertile collaboration via late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century post: one artist would begin the work, and then put the panel in the post to his collaborator in Antwerp, Venice or Germany (where Rottenhammer was from 1606), or Rome (where Bril remained, also often collaborating with both artists), who would complete the work. This practice is documented as early as 1610, as well as by the artists' biographer, Carlo Ridolfi, in 1648 (see S. Bedoni, Jan Brueghel in Italia e il Collezionismo del Seicento, Florence, 1983, and L. Pijl, 'Paintings by Paul Bril in collaboration with Rottenhammer, Elsheimer and Rubens', The Burlington Magazine, CXL, 1998, pp. 660-7). An early example is the Winter landscape by Breughel and Rottenhammer in the Ambrosiana, Milan, dated to circa 1596, which repeats the motif of the Holy Spirit descending from God the Father in Paradise with angels, perhaps suggesting a slightly earlier date for the present work, when Rottenhammer was still in Venice. This is the case for the collaboration between Rottenhammer and Breughel on the Feast of the Gods, signed and dated 'Gio. Rottenhammer 1602 F. in Venetia', sold at Christie's, Paris, 21 June 2012, lot 15 (Euros 1,241,000).