David Vinckboons - The Baptism of the Eunuch - image-1

Lot 1031 Dα

David Vinckboons - The Baptism of the Eunuch

Auction 1087 - overview Cologne
20.05.2017, 11:00 - Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Sculpture
Estimate: 40.000 € - 60.000 €
Result: 49.600 € (incl. premium)

David Vinckboons

The Baptism of the Eunuch

Oil on canvas (relined). 119 x 194 cm.

This painting was in the possession of a German family for decades, where it was formerly ascribed to the painter Gillis van Coninxloo. However, Klaus Ertz has since attributed the piece to van Coninxloo's friend David Vinckboons and dates it to 1605, which would make it an early work by this artist. Vinckboons was born in Mechelen but later moved with his parents to the Protestant Netherlands in 1586. However, Vinckboons is still often described as a “Dutch painter who couldn't be more Flemish” as according to Klaus Ertz, “his style remained rooted in the tradition of this region despite 40 years in Holland”.
This painting utilises the motif of a wooded landscape with a Christian scene, for which Vinckboons always painted the figures himself. A motif from the Book of Acts is depicted on the lower edge of the image, recounting the story in which the Apostle Philipp mets the Queen of Ethiopia's Chamberlain and converted him to Christianity. This story was illustrated by several other Netherlandish painters in this time, including Salomon van Ruysdael, Maarten van Heemskerck, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Lastmann, and Rembrandt, who depicted the scene in one of his engravings. Stylistically, the present work is comparable to a work depicting the healing of the centurion's servant kept in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Bamberg (cf. Ertz op. cit., cat. no. 1).

Certificate

Dr. Klaus Ertz, 17th March 2017

Provenance

Private collection, North Germany.

Literature

For this artist cf.: K. Ertz, C.Nitze-Ertz: David Vinckboons, Lingen 2016.