Beschreibung:

Details
ÉCOLE DE FONTAINEBLEAU DU XVIe SIÈCLE
La Paix embrassant la Justice
huile sur panneau
87,5 x 116,5 cm. (34 1/2 x 45 7/8 in.)
Provenance
Vente anonyme, Christie's, Londres, 29 mai 1981, lot 56 (comme 'J. Massys').
Lane Fine Art, Londres (comme 'School of Fontainebleau') ; d'où acquis par Michael Inchbald (1920-2013) ; sa vente, Christie's, Londres, 22 janvier 2014, lot 123 (comme 'circle of Jan Massys').
Literature
L. Buijnsters-Smets, Jan Massys Een Antwerps Schilder uit de zestiende eeuw, Zwolle, 1995, p. 229, n°66 (comme 'ten onrechte aan Jan Massys toegeschreven schilderijen').
Exhibited
Manchester, City of Manchester Art Gallery, Between Renaissance and Baroque. European Art 1520-1600, 10 mars-6 avril 1965, n°109 (comme 'French School, c. 1550-60').
Special notice
This item will be transferred to an offsite warehouse after the sale. Please refer to department for information about storage charges and collection
details.
Post lot text
FONTAINEBLEAU SCHOOL 16th CENTURY, PEACE AND JUSTICE KISS EACH OTHER, OIL ON PANEL
The subject of this allegorical composition is taken from the Book of Psalms: "Goodness and faithfulness meet, justice and peace embrace" (Ps 85,10). Peace, accompanied by her symbol the dove, bends over Justice who, armed with a sword and holding scales, is crowned by a putto.
Allegories were common in 16th-century painting, and the Dobrée Museum in Nantes, which has another version of this composition, suggests in their commentary on the painting that this may be one with a double significance. It is possible that the viewer is meant to understand this as a political comment on the 1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which put an end to the Eleventh Italian War between France on the one hand and the Holy Roman Empire and Spain on the other.
In addition to the Nantes version, other similar paintings are known, including a version in the Hermitage (St. Petersburg, inv. no. 7724) painted by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603) and another by Jacob de Backer sold Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 54.