Lot number 3415 - Auction 150
DIE ANBETUNG DER HIRTEN

PROBABLY HANS VON AACHEN AND WORKSHOP 1552 Cologne - 1615 Prague THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS Oil on copper panel. 26 cm x 20 cm. Monogrammed and dated illegibly lower right: "HVA. .IN ...".. Minimal old retouching. Frame probably from the 17th century. This composition of "The Adoration of the Shepherds" was painted by Hans von Aachen around 1590 for Duke William V of Bavaria. This first version of the painting, which is now lost, probably had a Deposition of Christ as its counterpart. The painting offered here can probably be counted among the few workshop pieces (under the supervision of the master himself) with the same theme. A comparable panel is in the possession of the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich.The description of the painting in Munich, which is consistent with a repeat listing in the art trade (see below), highlights the artist as the inventor of the composition; the simultaneous production of several workshop replicas under the supervision of the artist is particularly evident in this case. [Joachim Jacoby (2000), p. 92]. Similar to the panel offered here, cherub heads are also inserted as decorative elements in the spandrels, which were probably taken from the first version of the composition. In contrast to the Munich panel, a braided band has been inserted at the bottom of the picture in place of the cherub heads, on which the depiction has been monogrammed. In his monograph on German Baroque painting, Joachim Jacoby mentions several similarly monogrammed depictions of the same theme offered here (cf. Jacoby, Joachim: Hans von Aachen (1522-1615), Munich/Berlin, 2000, pp. 91-94). Provenance: Private collection, Rhineland. Previously private collection, Netherlands.