The Holy Family with a Parrot,
oil on panel, 79 x 118.5 cm, framed

Literature:
N. Dacos, Roma Quanta Fuit. Tre pittori fiamminghi nella Domus Aurea, Rome, 2001, pp. 6, 59–61, 122, nos. 21/22; illustrated, nos. 73/74, as Lambert Sustris;
N. Dacos, Roma Quanta Fuit. Tre pittori fiamminghi nella Domus Aurea, Rome, 2004, pp. 114–17, 194, illustrated p. 115;
N. Dacos, Lambert Sustris e Jan van Scorel in Arte Veneta, 56, 2000, pp. 39–51, as Lambert Sustris

The present composition is of extraordinarily high quality and has prompted a number of scholars to search for a plausible attribution.

The main figural composition in the present lot recurs in a number of other known works and, according to Molly Fairies (who wrote her dissertation on Jan van Scorel in 1972), derive from a lost prototype by the celebrated artist Jan van Scorel (1495–1562). Molly Faries speculates that the lost prototype might have been one of the wings of an altarpiece in the Mariakerk in Utrecht. This altarpiece is mentioned by Karel van Mander (1548–1606), who also pointed to its destruction during the iconoclastic riots. Other known versions include one that was formerly in the Wetzlar collection, Amsterdam (formerly attributed to Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen [circa 1504–1559]), and one (attributed to Herman Posthumus [1512–1566]) in the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, L’Aquila.

Molly Fairies considers the present version to be the earliest of the group (datable 1530–35) and the one of the highest quality. The painting is also the only version with a horizontal format which includes an extensive and detailed landscape in the background. Fairies further notes that the antique buildings in the background reveal an awareness of motifs that van Scorel had brought back from Italy to Utrecht in his sketchbooks, and that the poses of the figures in the middle ground can also be found in van Scorel’s work.

The pose of Saint Joseph with his head resting on his hand, leaning over a classical funerary altar, was undoubtedly inspired by Raphael and Giulio Romano’s painting The Holy Family with an Oak Tree of 1518–20 in the Prado Museum, Madrid (see fig. 1).

Nicole Dacos attributed the present painting to Lambert Sustris (circa 1515–1591), arguing that it can be considered his earliest extant work, datable to the early 1530s, just before the artist went to Rome in the winter of 1535-36. Meanwhile David Freedberg and Egbert Haverkamp-Begeman, who have both also studied this painting in the original, ascribe it unequivocally to early Maerten van Heemskerck (1498–1566). However, Rainald Grosshans, who dates the picture to circa 1535–40, very tentatively suggests Herman Posthumus as its author, pointing to Posthumus’ Landscape with Antique Ruins of 1536 in the Liechtenstein collection, Vienna.

The opinions of Molly Fairies and Rainald Grosshans are expressed via written communication (available on request), whereas David Freedberg and Egbert Haverkamp-Begeman have communicated their views orally.

Infrared reflectography reveals a substantial amount of underdrawing and numerous ‘pentimenti’ most notably in the features of the Christ Child; the Virgin’s headdress; the positioning of Joseph’s fingers and of the sculpted heads on the right side of the altar. This would suggest that the present work is an original composition rather than a copy.

Additional image:
Raphael and Giulio Romano, The Holy Family with an Oak Tree, Prado, Madrid
© Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid