In 2014, the auction house Christie's announced that their investigations demonstrated it was by Vermeer.[4][5] Before a 2023 exhibition of Vermeer's work at the Rijksmuseum, the museum announced it had confirmed the attribution to Vermeer.[6] The painting is believed to be one of Vermeer's earliest surviving works, created in 1655.[1]
Description and date
The painting depicts the saint squeezing a martyr's blood from a sponge into an ornate vessel. It is closely related to a work by Ficherelli from 1640 to 1645, now in the Collection Fergnani in Ferrara, and is generally assumed to be a copy of it (though see below for an alternative interpretation). The most obvious difference between the two is that there is no crucifix in the Ferrara work.[1] It is Vermeer's only known close copy of another work.[1][3]
The painting's provenance before the mid-twentieth century is unknown. The collector Jacob Reder bought it at a minor auction house in New York in 1943.[3] It first received significant attention as a possible Vermeer when being shown as a part of an exhibition of Florentine Baroque art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1969. The exhibition catalogue drew attention to the signature "Meer 1655" and Michael Kitson, reviewing the exhibition, suggested it could be a genuine Vermeer on the basis of stylistic similarities to Diana and Her Companions.[8][9] Following Reder's death (also in 1969) it was bought by the art dealer Spencer A. Samuels, who also believed it to be by Vermeer. The Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection Foundation bought it from Spencer in 1987.[3][10] The leading Vermeer scholar Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. subsequently argued the case for the attribution to Vermeer in an article devoted to it in 1986.[2][3]
The painting was not included in the exhibition "The Young Vermeer" held in The Hague, Dresden and Edinburgh in 2010–11.[11] However it was included in an exhibition of Vermeer's work held in Rome in 2012–13, curated by Wheelock, Liedtke, and Sandrina Bandera.[12]
It was sold at Christie's in London on 8 July 2014 on behalf of the Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection Foundation.[4] It sold to an unknown buyer for £6,242,500 (US$10,687,160), at the lower end of the estimated price range of £6-£8 million.[13] Some art market commentators speculated that doubt about the attribution to Vermeer may have contributed to the relatively low price.[14][15] From March 2015 it has been on display in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, labelled as "attributed to Johannes Vermeer". This appears to be a long-term loan to the museum from a private collector.[16]
In a 2023 exhibition catalogue, the Rijksmuseum revealed that Kufi Company, Inc. has owned the painting since 2014.[17]
Debates over attribution
Ficherelli's original
The painting may have two signatures. The more obvious of the two reads "Meer 1655", while the second appears as "Meer N R o o". It is possible that this second signature originally read "Meer naar Riposo", or "Vermeer after Riposo": Riposo was Ficherelli's nickname. The Doerner Institute's examination of the signatures concluded that both signatures were original and composed of pigments typical of the painting.[18] Wheelock's examination also led him to conclude that both signatures were original, and recent technical examination has demonstrated that the clearer signature is likely to have been added at, or close to, the date the painting was created.[7] However, these new investigations agreed with the earlier opinion of the conservator Jørgen Wadum that the possible second signature is too indistinct to be deciphered.[2]
An analysis of the lead white paint, performed by the Rijksmuseum in 2014 in association with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, suggests Dutch or Flemish origin with a strong possibility that the pigment was related to paint used in Vermeer's Diana and Her Companions.[7] The use of a chalk ground is associated with Dutch paintings of this era and the work reflects an unusually extensive use of ultramarine, typical of Vermeer's later work, but not of his earlier paintings, Diana and Her Companions or Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.[7] Wheelock identified stylistic similarities with two history paintings that scholars have confidently attributed to Vermeer. He also noted similarities between the depiction of the saint's face and the figure in Vermeer's A Girl Asleep and argued that the painter's conversion to Catholicism could have given him an interest in the subject matter.[3] Although it is thought unlikely that the Ferrara painting left Italy or that Vermeer visited Italy, Wheelock pointed out that Vermeer had a reputation as an authority on Italian art.[1][3] It is possible that another version or copy of the Ferrara painting was the model for Vermeer's work.[7]
In 1998, Wadum argued that the painting was not a copy of the work in Ferrara, or of any other work, because the background elements were painted before the foreground, which is typical of an original work rather than a copy. In 2014, Christie's suggested that this could reflect experimentation by Vermeer, a young artist modeling and adapting techniques in the original.[7]
In advance of a 2023 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Saint Praxides was one of three disputed works of art in Vermeer's oeuvre that the museum "upgraded" and deemed to be authentic works by the artist.[6][19]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr. (1986). "'St Praxedis': New Light on the Early Career of Vermeer". Artibus et Historiae. 7 (14): 71–89. doi:10.2307/1483225. JSTOR1483225.
The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw.
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. During his lifetime, he was a moderately successful provincial genre painter, recognized in Delft and The Hague. He produced relatively few paintings, primarily earning his living as an art dealer. He was not wealthy; at his death, his wife was left in debt.
Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch Golden Age painter, one of the leading genre painters of the 17th century. His works are known for their psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour.
Nicolaes Maes was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his native city of Dordrecht for 20 years. In the latter part of his career he returned to Amsterdam where he became the leading portrait painter of his time. Maes contributed to the development of genre painting in the Netherlands and was the most prominent portrait painter working in Amsterdam in the final three decades of the 17th century.
The Little Street is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, executed c. 1657–1658. It is exhibited at the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, and signed, below the window in the lower left-hand corner, "I V MEER".
The Milkmaid, sometimes called The Kitchen Maid, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid", in fact, a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions".
Leonaert Bramer, also Leendert or Leonard, was a Dutch painter known primarily for genre, religious, and history paintings. Very prolific as a painter and draftsman, he is noted especially for nocturnal scenes which show a penchant for exotic details of costume and setting. He also painted frescos—a rarity north of the Alps—which have not survived, as well as murals on canvas, few of which are extant. Bramer is one of the most intriguing personalities in seventeenth-century Dutch art.
Felice Ficherelli was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Tuscany. He was nicknamed "Felice Riposo" for his calm and quiet demeanour.
Pieter Claeszoon van Ruijven has been known as Johannes Vermeer's main patron for the better part of the artist's career, but in 2023 his wife Maria de Knuijt was identified by the curators of the 2023 exhibition of Vermeer's works at the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam as the main patron due to her long-standing and supportive relationship with the artist. He built a sizeable estate from inheritances he and his wife received and fruitful investments. In 1669, he became the Lord of Spalant when he purchased land owned by Willem, Baron van Renesse.
The Allegory of Faith, also known as Allegory of the Catholic Faith, is a Dutch Golden Age painting by Johannes Vermeer from about 1670–1672. It has been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1931.
A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals is a painting by Johannes Vermeer, though this was for a long time widely questioned. A series of technical examinations from 1993 onwards confirm the attribution. It is thought to date from c.1670 and is now in part of the Leiden Collection in New York. It should not be confused with Young Woman Seated at a Virginal in the National Gallery, London, also by Vermeer.
The Geographer is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in 1668–1669, and is now in the collection of the Städel museum in Frankfurt, Germany. It is closely related to Vermeer's The Astronomer, for instance using the same model in the same dress, and has sometimes been considered a pendant painting to it. A 2017 study indicated that the canvas for the two works came from the same bolt of material.
View of Delft is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted c. 1659–1661. The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is among his best known. It is one of three known paintings of Delft by Vermeer, along with The Little Street and the lost painting House Standing in Delft, and his only cityscape. According to art historian Emma Barker, cityscapes across water, which were popular in the Netherlands at the time, celebrated the city and its trade. Vermeer's View of Delft has been held in the Dutch Royal Cabinet of Paintings at the Mauritshuis in The Hague since its establishment in 1822.
Diana and Her Companions is a painting by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer completed in the early to mid-1650s, now at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. Although the exact year is unknown, the work may be the earliest painting of the artist still extant, with some art historians placing it before Christ in the House of Martha and Mary and some after.
Jacob Vrel was a Dutch, Flemish, or Westphalian painter of interiors and urban street scenes during the Dutch Golden Age (1588–1672). He was likely most active from 1654 to 1662.
The Guitar Player is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age artist Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), dated c. 1672. This work of art is one of Vermeer's final artistic activities, providing insight into the techniques he mastered and approaches to painting he favored. The painting has been on display at Kenwood House, London since the 1920s, as part of the Iveagh Bequest collection. After being recovered from a theft in 1974, when the painting was held for ransom, The Guitar Player was returned to Kenwood House.
Girl with a Flute is a small painting by Johannes Vermeer. It is currently believed to have probably been painted between 1669–1675. It is owned by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. along with three paintings attributed to Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance, A Lady Writing a Letter, and Girl with a Red Hat.
A Lady Playing the Guitar is an oil on canvas painting by an unknown copyist after a c. 1672 work by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is part of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle class life. His works have been a common theme in literature and films in popular culture since the rediscovery of his works by 20th century art scholars.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
