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Lot Essay
Very little is known about the life of Dirk de Quade van Ravesteyn. He is believed to have been born around 1565-70 in the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Northern Netherlands to a family of artists that included his father, Claes Quade van Ravesteyn. Dirk is first recorded in Prague in 1589, having moved there – like many of the most talented artists, scholars, scientists and philosophers of his time – to work for Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Among the few surviving documents to mention his name are ones that show he owned property in the Malá Strana in 1598 and that he lent significant sums of money in 1598 and 1602, both of which suggest he enjoyed a fair amount of success in Prague. The last recorded court payments were made to Ravesteyn in 1608, which would imply he returned to the Netherlands shortly thereafter. He died in or after 1619, when he is referenced as a creditor of the deceased emperors Rudolf and Matthias.
The present painting is a version of a composition in the Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw (fig. 1). The Warsaw painting was formerly thought to be the work of Michiel Coxie I but has in recent decades been described as Ravesteyn’s earliest surviving work, datable to the 1590s (E. Fučíková, ed., Rudolf II and Prague: The Court and the City, London, 1997, p. 399, no. I.51). In addition to the somewhat larger scale of the present painting, the artist has introduced a number of slight changes to the positioning of the limbs and reworked the colors of the figures’ garments from the predominant blues of the painting in Warsaw to the orange-pink-red scheme evident in the present painting. Dr. Eliška Fučíková has also recently suggested that the kneeling female figure at lower left in this painting likely represents a portrait. Her facial features differ from Ravesteyn’s typical facial types characterized by their large, protruding eyes; small nose and hint of a smile (private communication, 14 January 2022). Such features recall the works of Federico Barocci and Jan Massys, each of whom was represented in Rudolf’s collection.
The handling of paint has similarly undergone a dramatic transformation in the present painting, with the more painterly tendencies of the Warsaw painting giving way to a greater sense of courtly refinement here. Though few of Ravesteyn’s works are signed or dated, this highly accomplished painting can be characterized as a mature work dating to the artist’s period at the court of Rudolf II. Particularly close parallels can be found with paintings such as the large-scale Allegory of the Reign of Rudolf II, which is dated 1603 (Národní Galerie, Prague).
We are grateful to Dr. Eliška Fučíková for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs and for her assistance cataloguing this lot.
The present painting is a version of a composition in the Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw (fig. 1). The Warsaw painting was formerly thought to be the work of Michiel Coxie I but has in recent decades been described as Ravesteyn’s earliest surviving work, datable to the 1590s (E. Fučíková, ed., Rudolf II and Prague: The Court and the City, London, 1997, p. 399, no. I.51). In addition to the somewhat larger scale of the present painting, the artist has introduced a number of slight changes to the positioning of the limbs and reworked the colors of the figures’ garments from the predominant blues of the painting in Warsaw to the orange-pink-red scheme evident in the present painting. Dr. Eliška Fučíková has also recently suggested that the kneeling female figure at lower left in this painting likely represents a portrait. Her facial features differ from Ravesteyn’s typical facial types characterized by their large, protruding eyes; small nose and hint of a smile (private communication, 14 January 2022). Such features recall the works of Federico Barocci and Jan Massys, each of whom was represented in Rudolf’s collection.
The handling of paint has similarly undergone a dramatic transformation in the present painting, with the more painterly tendencies of the Warsaw painting giving way to a greater sense of courtly refinement here. Though few of Ravesteyn’s works are signed or dated, this highly accomplished painting can be characterized as a mature work dating to the artist’s period at the court of Rudolf II. Particularly close parallels can be found with paintings such as the large-scale Allegory of the Reign of Rudolf II, which is dated 1603 (Národní Galerie, Prague).
We are grateful to Dr. Eliška Fučíková for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs and for her assistance cataloguing this lot.