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ENGLISH SCHOOL (EARLY 17TH CENTURY), PORTRAIT OF A MAN WITH A PICKAXE AND A SPADE IN A LANDSCAPE
英国
2023年10月04日 开拍 / 2023年10月02日 截止委托
拍品描述
ENGLISH SCHOOL (EARLY 17TH CENTURY) PORTRAIT OF A MAN WITH A PICKAXE AND A SPADE IN A LANDSCAPE Oil on panel Inscribed 'QVIA PATER CREDIDIT MVLIERI' (upper left) and 'ATATIS SVA. 36. A. DNI 1601' (upper right) 104.5 x 82cm (41 x 32? in.) Literature: E.S. Whittlesey, Symbols and legends in Western art; a museum guide, New York, 1972. This Elizabethan portrait of an unidentified member of the gentry by an unknown artist is replete with symbols, which depict the sitter's social standing. Dressed in aristocratic, ornate costume - a white linen under shirt with tassels and frilled cuffs; a red, billowing over shirt; silver and gold belt and black breeches with silver thread detail - the agricultural tools he carries, attributes of the hedger and ditcher, are a stark contradiction. The portrait is a morality painting about the illegitimate birth of the sitter and perhaps his exclusion from inheriting his 'paternal' social status and property. This is reinforced by the inscription on the upper left: 'QVIA PATER CREDIDIT MVLIERI' / 'Why should the father have believed his wife' suggesting that the 'father' was made a cuckold by his wife. The spade and pickaxe (mattock) represent Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden: for her disobedience, Eve was condemned to painful childbearing and to be ruled over by Adam, and Adam had to toil in the fields with a spade or hoe for his daily bread until he died (Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, p. 5). The pickaxe is also an attribute of Pluto or Hades, ruler of the underworld, and thus a further allusion to the ignominy of the sitter's birth (Whittlesey, p. 133). The painting was possibly commissioned by the sitter himself; an inscription on the upper right of the portrait records the age of the sitter and the date the painting was made: 'ATATIS SVA. 36. A. DNI 1601'. This proposal is strengthened by the inclusion of positive symbols such as the rising sun, often used as a symbol of hope, new beginnings, and the promise of a better future - although equally the sun can be read as 'the attribute of truth personified because all is revealed by its light' (Hall, p. 292). However, the pickaxe represents breaking through obstacles or barriers that stand in the way thus overall the painting's message is possibly triumph over adversity. Although no other closely related portrait has come to light, in 1644, Jan Steen painted Celebrating the Birth in which there is a subplot that the 'father' has been made a cuckold (Wallace Collection, London, Inv. P111).

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拍品估价:10,000 - 15,000 英镑 起拍价格:9,000 英镑  买家佣金: 31.20% + VAT

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