South Netherlandish Master - Caritas
Renaissance, middle of the 16th Century, ca. 1550
Caritas, the personification of the Virtue of Charity
Oil on panel
H. 36,4 cm. W. 31 cm.
PROVENANCE
Private collection
CATALOGUE NOTE
We are grateful to Dr. Peter Carpreau, Director of the Old Masters and Collection Department of the M-Museum, Leuven, for its help in cataloguing this work.
The composition of the present work relates to two similar compositions given to the South Netherlandish master Vincent Sellaer (ca. 1490–1544/64): The Holy Kinship in Stockholm, usually dated to the third quarter of the 16th century, ca. 1560 and of which several versions exist and in particular Caritas, dated 1544, collection of The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Vincent Sellaer was active in Malines and the master who produced the present work must have known Sallaers Caritas composition and evidently based his own invention on it. It is therefore highly plausible that the present panel originated in the immediate circle of Sellaer, possibly even in Malines, probably (shortly) after 1544 and – given the applied colour scheme – before 1560.
