Lot 115: FOLLOWER OF ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN

PROPERTY OF A BAVARIAN NOBLEMAN

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

measurements note
121.2 by 80 cm.; 47 3/4 by 31 1/2 in.

oil on oak panel, trefoil top, in an engaged frame

PROVENANCE

Otto von Wesendonck, Zurich, by 1888;
His daughter, who married Professor Friedrich von Bissing, Munich, and later Oberaudorf, Bavaria, by 1927;
Their daughter Myrrha, Freiin von Bissing;
Thence by descent and marriage to the present owner.

NOTE

This is a 16th-century derivation of Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. no. 2825). Probably the most important northern European panel painting of the fifteenth century, Van der Weyden's panel of 1430-35 led the way for all succeeding generations of Netherlandish painters. The present work borrows the composition of Rogier's original, but elongates it vertically, so that Christ and the figures carrying Him are raised upwards, thus creating a greater sense of spatial depth. Moreover, the artist has set the scene in front of a landscape rather than a plain wall; the landscape itself recalls those of the next generation of Netherlandish artists, such as Joachim Patinir; this, together with the naturalistic mise-en-scène, argues for dating the panel several decades later than the original.