Highlights from the Old Master Paintings Sale at Dorotheum

The Classic Auction Week at Palais Dorotheum in Vienna will be held from 29 April to 2 May 2019, including different categories of artworks: Old Master Paintings (30 April, 5.00 pm), 19th Century Paintings (29 April, 5.00 pm) and Antiques (2 May, 3.00 pm). 

The upcoming Old Master Painting sale will feature museum-quality works, ranging from the 14th to the 19th century. Among the highlights of the sale are impressive paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi, Luca Giordano, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Guido Cagnacci and many other great masters from different schools.

Selected Lots from the Old Master Paintings Sale:

^{Left: Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy  Right: Abel Grimmer, An elegant loggia with the Proposal of Isaac to Rebecca}

Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy
^{oil on canvas, 129.8 x 180.4 cm}

An outstanding highlight of the Old Master Paintings auction is a work by the female artist Artemisia Gentileschi representing Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy. Mary Magdalene was one of the preferred subjects of seventeenth-century painters in Italy, embodying the concept of transgression and absolution enforced by the Counter-Reformation. She became a powerful symbol for the transformation from sinner to saint: her life changed drastically when she encountered Jesus, and after his death, she preached the gospel, converting others to Christianity. She eventually retired to the wilderness to do solitary penance for the sins of her past. The illuminated reclining figure of the woman is set against a dark rocky background with a landscape view opening out to one side, executed with the assistance of Onofrio Palumbo. The painting was formerly attributed to Massimo Stanzione by John Spike because it bears similarities with his works of the same period, especially in the treatment of chiaroscuro. See Price Estimate...

Abel Grimmer, An elegant loggia with the Proposal of Isaac to Rebecca
^{indistinctly signed and dated lower right: AB. GR.16.., oil on panel, 74.5 x 96.5 cm}

Abel Grimmer is known principally for his numerous small-scale paintings of country scenes, sometimes with biblical themes. His landscapes show splendid colour harmonies and a certain linearity, through their slightly schematized compositions and their tendency to represent buildings as geometric shapes. The masterfully executed building to the left is typical of the artist’s cityscapes and its composition reminds to the Marketplace of Bergen op Zoom, but the structure’s fantastic tracery and the antique costumes of the figures lend themselves to a biblical setting. See Price Estimate...

^{Left: Artus Wolffort, The Four Elements  Right: Antoon Claeissins, Justitia vanquishes the Seven Capital Sins}

Artus Wolffort, The Four Elements
^{oil on canvas, 158 x 200 cm}

This high-quality painting by the Flemish artist Artus Wolffort represents the personifications of the Four Elements in a classical style. The monumental rendering of the figures reminds to the plasticity of Rubens’s oeuvre. At left is the personification of Fire, here represented by Vulcan with a burning torch and a forge hammer. Air is depicted as a young naked man, probably representing the sun god Apollo. He is shown sitting on clouds and having in his hands a bird of paradise and a stick from which dead birds hang. Water is represented by Neptune, shown here with his trident pouring out water into the brook. The Earth is represented as Ceres, the goddess of fertility and abundance, shown here with a cornucopia and a white rabbit, a symbol of fertility. See Price Estimate...

Justitia vanquishes the Seven Capital Sins
^{oil on panel, 99.5 x 104.5 cm}

In this outstanding artwork, Antoon Claeissins responded both visually and iconographically to a renewed interest by sixteenth-century humanists and artists in interpreting and incorporating symbols, allegories and personifications in their art. The central figure of Justitia, raised by a heavenly force, appears triunphant over the personifications of sins: the Luxuria (lust) with her torch symbolising passion, Superbia (pride) who gazes at herself in a looking glass, Gula (gluttony), who brandishes a half-eaten ham-hock to Acedia (sloth), depicted with stumps for hands, Avaritia (greed) slouches under the weight of a split sack leaking coinage,  Invidia (jealousy) with her withered body lies upon rich drapery, and  Ira (rage) who prepares to plunge his stiletto into a cherubic infant, which raises its arm up imploringly towards the figure of Justice. This artwork bears iconographical similarities with one of Giorgio Vasari’s paintings, the Farnese Justice of 1543, now at the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. See Price Estimate...

^{Salvator Rosa, Coastal Landscape with Shipwrecks and Ruins}

Salvator Rosa, coastal landscape with shipwrecks and ruins
^{oil on canvas, 73.8 x 163.5 cm}

Salvator Rosa was a Neapolitan Baroque painter, adopted as a hero by painters of the Romantic movement in the later 18th and early 19th centuries. In his landscapes with ruins there are many references to the works of the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. Once he had completed his studies on Egyptian culture, Kircher began working on a series of volumes deemed as the zenith of his speculations on science and antiquities in the early1650s, for example, the Mundus Subterraneus, which dealt with the transformation of minerals and metals and their role in geological evolution and volcanic phenomena. These aspects clearly emerge in many paintings by Salvator Rosa, focused on natural views such as wild landscapes, volcanic eruptions or storms. In the present marine painting, which is Rosa’s early work, the influence of the so-called Bamboccianti is evident in the treatment of the figures in the foreground, but the real subject is the impressive and sublime view. Rosa's landscape paintings became quite popular in late eighteenth-century England. His depiction of nature, that was very modern for that time, reflected perfectly the romantic sensitivity to nature. See Price Estimate...

^{Left: Elisabetta Sirani (with the assistance of Giovanni Andrea Sirani), The Finding of Moses Right: Guido Cagnacci, The Penitent Mary Magdalene}

Elisabetta Sirani (with the assistance of Giovanni Andrea Sirani), the Finding of Moses
^{oil on unlined canvas, 112.5 x 130 cm}

The female Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani was one of the first successful female artists in an era that denied academy training to women. She studied classic models from antiquity from her home town as well as Florence and Rome. She was the daughter of painter and art teacher Giovanni  Andrea Sirani, a follower of renowned Bolognese religious etcher-painter Guido Reni.
Elisabetta Sirani tended to focus on bold, outstanding female subjects, as it emerges from this work representing the finding of Moses. When Pharoah ordered the killing of all boys born to the Israelites, Moses was hidden by his mother in a basket of bulrushes on the river Nile. There he was discovered and adopted by Pharoah's daughter. The joyfulness of this event seems to be expressed through the bright colours of the palette, ranging from light pinks and blue-greys to deep greens, ochres and reds. Particularly noteworthy is the naturalistic treatment of the head and face of the female attendant holding the infant and the gracefulness and beauty of the figure of the Pharoah's daughter. See Price Estimate...

Guido Cagnacci, The Penitent Mary Magdalene
^{oil on canvas, 96 x 75.5 cm}

In the 17th century, the Bolognese painter Guido Cagnacci was celebrated for his deeply sensual paintings of female saints and heroines, that fluctuate between the sacred and the profane.
Full of earthy drama, this painting depicts Mary Magdalene emerging out of the shadow into light with the use of chiaroscuro. The Saint’s attributes only just emerge from this obscurity: her bowl is merely suggested, while the slightest of haloes is rendered with the fine tip of a brush. The narrative elements are reduced to a minimum and the influence of the Roman Caravaggisti is apparent. See Price Estimate...

^{Left: Luca Giordano, The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Joachim  Right: Johann Anton Eismann, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice}

Luca Giordano, The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Joachim
^{oil on canvas, 209 x 147 cm}

This is an unpublished work by Luca Giordano, the leading Neapolitan painter of the later 17th century. He started the career as a Caravaggist since he was trained by Jusepe the Ribera, but later he was profoundly influenced by the leading Roman painters of the early 17th century, such as Annibale Carracci and Pietro da Cortona. He was known as “Fa Presto” ('does it quickly') because of his speed of painting. The Baroque style of this monumental painting perfectly expresses the pathos and the spirituality of the religious subject. The play of light and shadow recalls Caravaggio’s use of chiaroscuro, imitated by the contemporary Neapolitan school, but the bright colors remind to the Venetian school. The lapis lazuli blue of the mantle worn by the Madonna is of particular beauty, and harmoniously combines with the red of her robe and the white cuff of her undergarment and the cloth she holds in her hands, as well as with the pale rose skin tones of the Child. See Price Estimate... 

Johann Anton Eismann, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
^{oil on canvas, 108.5 x 145.5 cm}

This is the only known view painting of Venice by Johann Anton Eismann, as such it represents a fundamental addition to the artist’s corpus of works. He was an Austrian painter active in Verona and Venice, specialized primarily in harbor and battle genre scenes. The suggestive view depicted is the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, surrounded by galleons, gondolas and other types of shipping perfectly detailed. The major quality of this rare painting consists of the lively rendering of atmosphere, its clarity of colour and brilliance of palette, in the striated sky. See Price Estimate...

^{Battista dell’Angolo del Moro, Mars and Venus with Cupid}

Battista dell’Angolo del Moro, Mars and Venus with Cupid
^{oil on canvas, 119.5 x 205.3 cm}

Battista d’Angolo called del Moro was not only a painter but also a draughtsman and engraver, active in his native Verona, as well as in Mantua and Venice. He was deeply influenced by the work of Giulio Romano and Parmigianino, as well as revealing an engaged interest in Giulio Campagnola and Titian. The goddess Venus, that seems depicted with pure light, is reclined beneath a vermillion red curtain and embraced by the god of war Mars. On the right is Cupid born of the union between Venus and Mars. This painting could be interpreted as an allegory of the balance between love and war, as two partners in a marriage should balance each other out. See Price Estimate...

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