Old Master Auction in Vienna: Not just idylls

Who is this blonde lured saint on Perugino’s “Pietà” in the Uffizi? Art historians long considered the angelic youth on the altarpiece to be either John the Baptist or the evangelist John; He is now known as Saint Nicodemus. Now a head study on paper has appeared in the Vienna Dorotheum on this figure. Although the multi-division house has its own department for master drawings, high-calibre sheets like this also migrate to the large hall auctions. According to the experts, it is a scale design, with which the painter defined lighting, character and curl structure of the figure. Effectively, the teacher set Raphael’s white accents on the pink primed leaf, which is offered at a tax price of 200,000 to 300,000 euros. Inspired by Titian and Rubens Among the top lots of the Old Master Auction is Luca Giordano’s dramatic tableau “The Bethlehemitic Child Murder”, for which 400,000 to 600,000 euros are expected. The artist devoted himself to the biblical theme several times and oriented himself in this composition to his predecessors Titian and Rubens. The painting also boasts a noble provenance: at the beginning of the 19th century. It is listed in the inventory of Neapolitan Prince Caracciolo di Avellino. The second top lot leads to 18th century Vienna. The Venetian Bernardo Bellotto spent two years after Dresden from 1758 in the residence of Empress Maria Theresia and accepted numerous commissions for Veduts. Among them was a view of the Karlskirche, which was previously unknown. The 49 by 80 centimeter painting shows the then still freestanding baroque building with the Vienna River and Staffage (tax 400,000 to 600,000 euros). Giuseppe Bernardino Bison’s Vedute “The arrival of the Bucintoro in San Nicoló al Lido in Venice” awaits with brisk shipping traffic around the Doge’s state ship (120,000/180,000). In brilliant colors, Guido Reni’s octagonal painting “Adoration of the Shepherds”, set in a gilded frame from the 18th century. From the list of its previous owners, a famous name stands out with the British painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (200,000/300,000). Gaetano Gandolfi, like Reni, came from Bologna, where he worked with his brother. His scene Hercules and Omphale, created in the 1780s, stands out from earlier versions of other painters in which the Queen triumphs over the strongest man of antiquity. In Gandolfi there is harmony instead of gender struggle, and this in neo-baroque manner (150,000/200,000). In France, the semi-figure portrait of a girl signed by Frans Pourbus the Younger is believed to have been created. For the late work of the Fleming, who died in Paris in 1622, the meticulous reproduction of the green velvet dress and lace collar as well as the characterful expression of the child (200,000/250,000) speak. As in spring, a painting by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller will again be at the head of the 19th division in autumn. century. In the picture “Childly Curiosity”, the Biedermeier painter staged a crowd of children with a grandfather in 1851 against a village backdrop. What the girl in the center of the tense group wears in his apron, the picture does not reveal (150,000/200,000). Even more brilliant are the colors of the oil painting “Im Ziegenstall”, which the artist specialized in peasant idylls created seven years later (80,000/120,000). Eastern European painting is regularly received in the Dorotheum. The religious image “announcement” of the Russian Georges Calistratovitch Artemoff should have a good chance of fulfilling his taxes of 80,000 to 120,000 euros.