Beschreibung:

Pieter Paul Rubens, attributed to oil on panel, 102x78cm . “Carrying this letter is Pietro Paolo the Flemish, my Painter, that I am sending there [to Rome] to copy and paint certain drawings, as more diffusely You will wish from him.” This letter of recommendation written on July 18, 1601 by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and addressed to Cardinal Alessandro Peretti Montaldo in Rome, metaphorically and physically opened the doors of the eternal city for Peter Paul Rubens’s first and short Roman stay. The young painter’s art had already reached a very notable level: after formally becoming a “master” in Antwerp, he did not come to Rome disoriented and looking for protection; he was sent there for work and for a specific purpose by a nobleman, Gonzaga, who would continue to pay his salary and wouldn’t request him to go to Spain until the following year. It was, in all likelihood, in Rome, during this first stay, that Rubens began to shape his extremely original iconographic type that is the “Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, the Infant Saint John and a dove”. From the mid 18th century on this composition, set against a romantic backdrop, was known in print. Along its lower edge is the phrase: “Cum essem parvulus sapiebam ut parvulus” (from the letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 13,11). These printed versions were doubtfully attributed to Rubens and were put in relation with other paintings from the painter’s Italian period (especially Rubens’s “Holy Family”, now in Palazzo Pitti). It wasn’t until 1893 that H. Hymans reported (publishing only in 1927) a painting with the same subject. In 1925 the painting was in London with A.L. Nicholson where it then passed in the same year to William H. Moore’s collection in New York. In 1955, the painting was donated by Mrs. Ada Small Moore to the Metropolitan Museum of New York, where it still is (oil on panel, 66 x 51.4 cm). In 1927-1928 the painting was first displayed to the public in an exhibit held at the P. Jackson Higgs Gallery in New York: on that occasion, Valentiner suggested its dating to 1602-1605, based on the structure of the composition; this dating, however, was not agreed upon by a number of critics: both E. Simple and F.E. Washburn Freund, in their reviews of the exhibition, strongly claimed the painting should be dated to a later period. Washburn Freund, in particular, pointed out the contradiction between the composition, that appears inspired by Italian models (and therefore is such as to logically justify Valentiner’s suggested dating), and the painting style and technique, that appear to belong to a more mature time. In 1930, L. Burchard made the second painting public, which is now displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum as a Rubens original dating to 1609 ca. At the beginning of the century, the painting (oil on panel, 138.4 x 120.7 cm) was in the Count of Kospoth’s collection in Briese bei Ols, Silesia; in 1930 it was purchased by Berliner Gustav Nebehay and it later became a part of Gustav Oberlander’s collection in Reading (PA), where it remained until 1947. In 1936, the two paintings were displayed together for the first time, in Detroit; based on the direct comparison on that occasion, the Oberlander panel was deemed to be the final work, while the Moore painting was its model; both works were dated to 1609-1610. As for the print, E. Siple, in her review of the exhibition, stated that it was taken from the larger painting, although certain details of the drapery seemed to follow the smaller one. In 1946, the Oberlander version was sold on New York’s antique market; from there it entered New Yorker Frederick Mont’s collection and was displayed in an exhibit organized by Valentinier in Los Angeles, where it was shown alongside the painting we are presenting in this auction. Later on, in 1952, the work became a part of Ch.F. Sandborn’s collection in Los Angeles; following his death, it was acquired by the County Museum thanks to the Colonel and Mrs. Geo