04.21.2016-07.29.2016
Flemish 16th and 17th century masters
Recent acquisitions
Established in Geneva’s Old Town for more than five years, De Jonckheere Gallery is celebrating this spring “Art en Vieille ville” edition through a new selection of old masters paintings.
Among these “recent acquisitions”, there is a bust portrait of Erasmus by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder. The model, a major figure in Christian humanism, is turned three quarters to the left. He clearly stands out from the pale blue uniform background. This iconographic formula is thoroughly representative of portrait painting of the day. Another almost identical version to this portrait is kept at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.
Lucas Cranach the Elder didn’t invent this portrait of Erasmus but drew direct inspiration from those attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). Indeed, Holbein knew Erasmus and he had the writer to thank for the letters of introduction, which earned him many clients in England, including Sir Thomas More. Holbein supplied many portraits of the learned man, which were then widely distributed and copied. Among the known versions, there is the one dated circa 1532 which is kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the one from circa 1530 at the Kunstmuseum in Basel.