23
Simone de Wobreck © (Haarlem, 1557)
Climb to Calvary
Oil on panel
H 53 x 40 cm, in frame 63 x 48
Expertise by Professor Claudio Strinati:
" The Ascent to Calvary bears the following inscription on the back (partially covered by a parquet presumably applied in fairly recent times to strengthen the stability of the wood): Martin de Vos Antwerp 1532-1603. Therefore the reference, which I believe was also written in recent times, is to the famous Flemish painter who was also present in Italy and left in our country notable works as well as a flourishing workshop. And it is precisely this point that must be discussed in relation to our painting. The work under examination here, in fact, is absolutely Flemish and can be dated with absolute certainty to the second half of the sixteenth century, but it does not at all denote the style, otherwise unmistakable, of Martin de Vos. On the contrary, our work falls within a sphere of Flemish painting in Italy that does not derive directly from de Vos but instead coincides with a school of his fellow countrymen collateral to him but quite distinct. Characteristic of our painting, under examination here, is the swarming of characters that crowd around the fallen Redeemer and that reflect a double feeling: ethical and aesthetic. On the one hand, if you look closely, the painter vigorously represents with harsh and almost popular accents the pain and sadness of the crowd that gathers and disperses with a very suggestive and involving scenic effect; on the other hand, the work as a whole is read as a sense of mockery and scorn, consistent with the story represented. This type of representation is typical of Flemish culture that even remains distantly connected, in many authors also active in Italy, to the culture of Hieronymus Bosch, dating back however to the first half of the sixteenth century.
" The Ascent to Calvary bears the following inscription on the back (partially covered by a parquet presumably applied in fairly recent times to strengthen the stability of the wood): Martin de Vos Antwerp 1532-1603. Therefore the reference, which I believe was also written in recent times, is to the famous Flemish painter who was also present in Italy and left in our country notable works as well as a flourishing workshop. And it is precisely this point that must be discussed in relation to our painting. The work under examination here, in fact, is absolutely Flemish and can be dated with absolute certainty to the second half of the sixteenth century, but it does not at all denote the style, otherwise unmistakable, of Martin de Vos. On the contrary, our work falls within a sphere of Flemish painting in Italy that does not derive directly from de Vos but instead coincides with a school of his fellow countrymen collateral to him but quite distinct. Characteristic of our painting, under examination here, is the swarming of characters that crowd around the fallen Redeemer and that reflect a double feeling: ethical and aesthetic. On the one hand, if you look closely, the painter vigorously represents with harsh and almost popular accents the pain and sadness of the crowd that gathers and disperses with a very suggestive and involving scenic effect; on the other hand, the work as a whole is read as a sense of mockery and scorn, consistent with the story represented. This type of representation is typical of Flemish culture that even remains distantly connected, in many authors also active in Italy, to the culture of Hieronymus Bosch, dating back however to the first half of the sixteenth century.
But all this does not belong to the culture of de Vos who is instead oriented towards an austere and noble classicism.
Here, in our work, we see the exact opposite of classicism. Rather, we see an attitude on the part of the painter who executed the painting, of an absolutely manneristic type that corresponds to what we have noted. The stylistic characteristics of our painting, therefore, are closely connected with another Flemish master who worked in southern Italy in the second half of the sixteenth century, Simone De Wobreck. Today, he may be less well-known than de Vos, but Simone De Wobreck was a master of the highest calibre, active above all in Sicily where he created an important group of disciples and followers. If we compare our painting with an authentic masterpiece by De Wobreck such as the majestic altarpiece of the Circumcision in the church of San Domenico in Castelvetrano, it is clear to me that we are dealing with the same hand. Analytical and pungent, lively and proliferating, our painting was created by an artist with the same mentality and figurative culture that we see expressed in the Castelvetrano altarpiece. Moreover, Simone De Wobreck repeatedly treated the theme of the Ascent to Calvary, as is well documented by at least two altarpieces that the sources refer to him, one formerly in San Francesco in Caccamo and another in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Ciminna. Our painting, in short, must be considered a remarkable work of Flemish Mannerism in Italy, probably datable between the ninth and tenth decade of the sixteenth century, in the last years of the life of De Wobreck who, born in Haarlem on an unspecified date but to be placed in the fourth decade, appears to have disappeared, on a documentary basis, around 1596/97."
€ 5.000,00
Starting price