Lot 26: Susannah and the Elders

Johann Spillenberger (Kaschau c. 1628-1679 Engelhartszell) Susannah and the Elders signed 'JSpielnberger f' ('JS' linked, lower left, on the ledge) oil on canvas laid on board, unframed 27 x 23½ in. (68.6 x 59.7 cm.)

Salzburg, Barockmuseum, Johann von Spillenberger Hofmaler Kaiser Leopolds I, 2003, no. M9a in the addendum.

with Heinrich Sexauer, Karlsruhe, 1927.

The German painter Johann Spillenberger was educated in his father's workshop in Transylvania followed by his uncle's in Pomerania. He then studied with Johann Loth in Munich and after a trip to Venice in 1660, was active again in Germany, mainly Munich, then Augsburg and finally Vienna in 1670. In 1669 Leopold I raised him to the nobility.

Two other paintings of the same subject by Spillenberger are known: the larger canvas, signed and dated 1670, now in the Schloss Weissenstein at Pommersfelden, and the one in the Katharinenpalast in Zarskoje Selo, near St. Petersburg. Although smaller in size, the present picture has analogies especially with the latter, in the freshness of the brushstrokes, the clever and inventive spacial arrangement of the figures, and the dynamism of the overall composition. The present picture could be dated to around the early 1660s, when Spillenberger depicted several paintings from Ovidian themes, such as Pan and Syrinx in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, all characterised by contrasts of lighting and fresh palette, that clearly show his knowledge of Northern artists such as Rembrandt and Rubens.