OLD MASTERS, SPANISH COLONIAL ART AND LUXURY WATCHES
No reserve lot, property of a Gentleman, estate liquidation. Oil on panel, measurements: 37 x 29. Joos van Cleve (Cleveris?, c. 1485-Antwerp, 1540 or 1541), member of a family of artists, since the surname Cleef is repeated among the painters of Antwerp, it is little what is known about his life and his artistic career. He could have been born in Cleves (Cleve in German, Kleef in Dutch), currently a German city but in the 16th century in the duchy of Cleves, which is part of the Netherlands. He dedicated his career to portraiture and religious painting, sometimes repeating his compositions of variegated figures, backgrounds of Renaissance architecture, and easy sales. The Death of the Virgin from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, dated 1515 on its frame and signed with a monogram, served as a starting point for the recognition of his initial style and thus attributing to him the works that until then had been assigned to the Master of the Death of the Virgin. Since 1524, with The Lamentation at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt, there is a shift in his painting towards Italian models, although there is no documentary evidence of any trip to that country. It is possible, however, that he did so in France, where according to Guicciardini he was called by Francis I to work as a portraitist at court. Between 1528 and 1535 Joos van Cleve does not appear in the records of the guild of Saint Luke, a period that he may have actually spent in France, from where he perhaps traveled to England to portray Henry VIII, at this time numerous portraits are attributed to him, always of a sober nature. . In Spain he is represented in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, which houses two of his works: a Self-portrait painted around 1519, and a Child of the Passion on the Globe, from around 1530. In the Prado Museum a Portrait of old man from the royal collection, which was attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger, whose work Cleve was able to see in England, and a Savior of the World of dubious attribution, which repeats a model from the Louvre Museum. In Gran Canaria, specifically in the Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, the Snow Triptych is attributed to him. Reference bibliography: Pita Andrade, José Manuel and Borobia Guerrero, María del Mar, Old Masters of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, 1992, pp. 246-247, ISBN 84-88474-02-4 In his image. Art, culture and religion, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 2014-2015, ISBN 978-84-15931-14-0
