Attributed to Jan van den Hoecke (1611 - 1651) or Sir Peter ...

Hammer

£130,000

Attributed to Jan van den Hoecke (1611 - 1651) or Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640)

Philosophers measuring a planispheric projection (or, 'Philosophers Studying the Motion of the Spheres at Midnight')

Oil on panel (with Antwerp panel maker’s mark on reverse)
In a carved and gilded frame

Provenance:

• The Durazzo Palace, Genoa, Italy;


• Acquired by Andrew Wilson (1780 - 1848); 


• Lord St Helens;


• Peter Coxe, London, 1807


• Edward Speelman, London, 1970;


• Leonard Koetser Gallery, 13 Duke Street, St James’s;


• Where purchased 16 February 1976 by the current owners.

Literature:

• Julius S. Held, ‘Rubens and Aguilonous: New Points of Contact’, Art Bulletin, Vol. LXI, no. 2, June 1979, pp. 257-264;


• Michael Jaffé, ‘Catalogo Completo Rubens,’ 1989, no. 808, p. 287

Note:
In spite of Jaffé's full support and inclusion of this work in his catalogue raisonné of Rubens' output, Bert Schepers has described this work and a pendant as the work of Jan van den Hoecke, who worked in Rubens’ studio in the 1630s before going to Italy in 1637; he dates the pendants to 1635-1637. The attribution to Van den Hoecke was first suggested by Julius Held in the Art Bulletin, 1979. Jaffé maintained an attribution to Rubens in his Catalogo Completo of 1989. The pendant depicts Philosophers Surveying an Ideal City, which may be the picture listed in Jeremias Wildens' Antwerp inventory of 1654 as by ‘Van Hoeck’.

Dimensions:
(Panel) 22.5 in. (H) x 30 in. (W) 
(Panel) 57.2 cm (H) x 76.2 cm (W)

Property of a Family