Name: BAVARIAN SCHOOL, CIRCA 1600
Brand: Mercury and Argus
Price: 500.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

BAVARIAN SCHOOL, CIRCA 1600
Mercury and Argus
with inscription 'H. Goltius'
traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink, grey wash
7 x 8¹⁄₄ in. (18 x 21 cm)

Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7 May 1969 [lot number unknown].

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Lot Essay

The style of this drawing, which was formerly attributed to Friedrich Sustris (and before that to Hendrick Goltzius), is reminiscent of works by slightly later artists active in Munich and Bavaria, such as two lunettes from the circle of Johann Mathias Kager (1590-1637), sold at Christie’s, Paris, 22 March 2017, lot 16. Although the scene seems to represent Mercury lulling Argus to sleep, with Jupiter and his lover Io in the background as a bull and a heifer (as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book I, 688-723), Mercury here looks like Apollo wearing his laurel wreath.