Landscape with Virgin and Child and angels, oil on copper, verso punch mark of the manufacturer of the copper plate: KW with a star in a circle (all punched), 36.6 x 50.5 cm, framed

Certificate:
Dr Ursula Härting, Hamm (2012).

Provenance:
Rhenish private collection.

Dr Härting writes in her certificate, “The painting, known to me in the original, Landscape with Virgin and Child and angels is a collaborative work by two specialists from Antwerp. The landscape was painted by painter of sylvan scenes, Abraham Govaerts, and the figural scene by small-scale figure painter, Louis de Caullery. This idyllic composition was very popular; Govaerts, Caullery and their workshop colleagues painted it many times over, also in slightly varying versions [...]. Contemporary viewers of the picture were aware that, when standing before the mute painting, they could imagine for themselves, or accompany, the musica mundana made by the angels, imagined by the artist. Since to be able to hear the music and song of angels making music in harmony was not granted to mortals on earth, only the saints and holy ones who had ascended into heaven were able to hear the angelic music of the spheres...” She dated the painting to the period around 1620.

Until recently, there were only 12 copper plates with punch marks from the to date unknown copper plate manufacturer, KW. They originate from the workshops of Frans Franckens II and Ambrosius Bosschaert (see J. Wadum, ‘Antwerp copper plates’, in: cat. Copper as Canvas, Phoenix/ Arizona-The Hague 1999, pp. 93-116, pls. 5 and 6).