Fra Angelico, Rubens and Rembrandt, stars of the ancient art auctions in London

2023-07-05 13:12:30

After rather lukewarm modern and contemporary art auctions, with some exceptions, such as the auction of the ‘Portrait of a lady with a fan’, by Gustav Klimt (sold to a Hong Kong collector for $108.4 million, a new record for the artist at auction and the most expensive work of art ever auctioned in Europe), this week it is the turn of ancient art in London. This afternoon, the room Sotheby’s puts up for sale ‘San Sebastián attended by two angels’, by Rubens (oil on canvas, 124 by 97.8 centimeters), whose estimated price fluctuates between 4 and 6 million pounds sterling. For almost three hundred years, since this painting was last installed in the collection of the artist’s great Genoese patrons, the Spinola familyBy the early 1730s, the true identity of the author had been lost. When the painting resurfaced at auction 15 years ago, he attributed it to the French painter Laurent de la Hyre.

But an exhaustive investigation into the Spinola family’s wills and inventories made specialists think that it was a work by Rubens. In addition, new evidence discovered through X-ray analysis has revealed the hidden secrets that lie beneath the painting’s surface. This examination has not only affirmed that the canvas is a autograph work of the artist, but reveals that the work is the first version of the compositionknown through another version preserved for centuries in the collection of another great Italian family, the Corsini, and today hangs in the Corsini Gallery in Rome.

Tomorrow it is the turn of Christie’s, which heralded the historic rediscovery of the last known pair of Rembrandt portraits to remain in private hands. Exceptionally rare, portraits of Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym (circa 1565-1644) and Jaapgen Carels (1565-1640), signed and dated 1635, are intimate portraits of relatives of the artist and provide a unique insight into Rembrandt’s activity as a painter within his inner circle. Your estimated price: 5-8 million pounds.

The works were purchased from Christie’s by an ancestor of the current owners nearly two centuries ago and have remained unknown to scholars ever since. They now return to Christie’s after extensive academic research and scientific analysis conducted at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Small in scale and painted from life with Rembrandt’s characteristic virtuosity, these paintings offer a tender and dignified image of an elderly couple, related to the artist.

Retratos de Jan Willemsz. van der Pluym y Jaapgen Carels, pintados por Rembrandt Christie’S

Also tomorrow in the same room, the sale of ‘The Crucifixion, with the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and the Magdalene’, by Fra Angelico (around 1395-1455) stands out. His estimate: 4-6 million pounds. Fra Angelico’s autograph works at auction are rare. Only two have been recorded this century: a small panel, which sold at Christie’s in New York last year for $4.7 million, and a slightly larger one, which sold in Italy in 2003 for $1.2 million. Dollars.

Christie’s now offers a Crucifixion scene with a gold background that was rediscovered as the work of the Florentine artist by Francis Russell, Vice President of Christie’s in the United Kingdom. work had been previously attributed to Lorenzo Monaco, in whose workshop it is believed that Fra Angelico was trained. The panel is believed to have been acquired by William Bingham Baring, 2nd Lord Ashburton, in the 18th century.