1013 - Niederländischer Meister des 16. Jahrhunderts

Niederländischer Meister des 16. Jahrhunderts Netherlandish School 16th century Adam and Eve (The Original Sin) Oil on panel. 33.5 x 29.5 cm. Provenance J. Humphrey Ward Collection, London. – Ploos van Amstel Collection (1726–1798). – Krupp Collection (as Albrecht Dürer, with corresponding collection labels on the reverse). – B. Svenonius Collection, Stockholm, 1930. – Antiquitätshaus Wertheim, Berlin, 30.4.1930, p.22, lot 9 (as Netherlandish Master). – South German private collection. Exhibitions Aldre mästares tavlor tillhöring ou F.D. Advokorten Birger Svenonius, Stockholm, Universitets Konstmuseum, Lund, 1927/28, no. 37. – Birger Svenonius samling, äldre mästares tavlor, Kungliga Akademien för de Fria Konsterna, Stockholm, 1929, no. 43. Literature Exh.-cat. Lund 1927/28: Aldre mästares tavlor tillhöring ou F.D. Advokorten Birger Svenonius, Stockholm, ed. by Universitets Konstmuseum, Lund, 1927, no. 37. – Exh.-cat. Stockholm 1929: Birger Svenonius samling: äldre mästares tavlor, ed. by Kungl Akademien för de fria konsterna, B. Svenonius, C. D. Moselius, Stockholm 1929, no. 43. - Die Kunstauktion. Internat. Nachrichtenblatt des gesamten Kunstmarktes, IV (1930), no. 15, 14.4.1930, pp. 1-2; no. 18, 4.5.1930, p. 6 and p. 8. Albrecht Dürer’s engraving 'Adam and Eve' evidently served as the model for the present painting. The artist adopted the composition and a number of details from the famous print, executed in 1504 (fig. 1). The slender, softly modelled figures of the two protagonists, however, differ from the powerful physicality of Dürer’s figures. Some of the animals in the foreground and background have been repositioned or replaced by motifs of the artist’s own invention. Thus, in place of Dürer’s cat in the centre of the composition, we find a small dog. Hofstede de Groot had already proposed locating the panel within the Netherlandish artistic tradition, noting a connection with the work of Jan Gossaert (1478–1532). Gossaert depicted the Fall of Man on several occasions. In his earliest treatment of the subject, dating from around 1507/8 and now in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Netherlandish artist likewise drew upon Dürer’s engraving, although he interpreted his model more freely. The labels on the reverse attest to the painting’s former attribution to, and appreciation as, an authentic work by Albrecht Dürer. According to these labels, it was once in the collection of Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (Amsterdam 1726–1798), whose collection ranked among the most important in the Netherlands. The Krupp Collection is also recorded on the reverse as part of the painting’s provenance. According to documents by the previous owner, there was a now-lost certificate by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot identiying the painting as 'from the circle of Jan Gossaert'. For comparative illustrations, see the printed catalogue as well as the PDF version.