Lot 21. Attributed to Sebastian Vrancx (Antwerp 1573-1647), Allegory of the months of March and April, with the Villa Medici, oil on panel, 79 x 104 cm. Estimate: £100,000 - £150,000. Photo: Bonhams.

LONDON.- The gardens of the Villa Medici in Rome have become known for their fragrance. In certain months, the lemon trees, lavender and oregano flowers, mix with woody aroma of the nearby cedars and the fragrance of the ancient stones in the heat of the sun. The changing of the seasons is particularly felt, making Allegory of the months of March and April, with the Villa Medici – which is amongst the highlights of Bonhams Old Master Paintings on sale on Wednesday 5 July at New Bond Street, London – particularly apt. Attributed to Sebastian Vrancx (Antwerp 1573-1647) the work has an estimate of £100,000 - £150,000.

Lisa Greaves, Head of Bonhams’ Old Master Painting Department, commented: “Allegory of the months of March and April, with the Villa Medici most likely formed part of six paintings, each illustrating two consecutive months of the year, which were acquired by William Smith in Rome in 1626, on behalf of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel. Their imagery derived from the calendars of medieval Books of Hours in which the evolving year was captured in changing seasonal activities of both agricultural labourers and their leisured masters. The work in our Bonhams sale is particularly impressive, capturing the turning of the seasons in a way that almost transports you to a past time outside the Villa Medici.”

Writing in the current issue of Bonhams Magazine, Susan Moore, notes: “Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel was arguably the most illustrious collector and patron of the arts Britain has ever known. He amassed every form of art, including a peerless collection of Old Master drawings, exceptional paintings, and classical Greek and Roman sculpture and gems…As the prints made after this particular series suggest, they had been commissioned from the highly successful painter, printmaker, and draughtsman Paul Bril (c.1554-1626).”

Lot 21. Attributed to Sebastian Vrancx (Antwerp 1573-1647), Allegory of the months of March and April, with the Villa Medici, oil on panel, 79 x 104 cm. Estimate: £100,000 - £150,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Acquired in Rome by William Smith in 1626 on behalf of
Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), by inheritance to his wife,
Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel (1585-1654), recorded in an inventory made after her death, in 1655, by descent to her son,
William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford (1614-1680), Stafford House, London, by descent in the family to
Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (1686-1777), Norfolk House, London, by descent in the family to
Sir Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk (1908-1975), by whom offered
Sale, Christie's, London, 11 February 1938, probably part of lot 90 (as A. Grimmer)
with Robert Finck, Brussels, 1956 (together with the months of May/June)
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 November 1983, lot 65 (The Property of a Gentleman), where purchased by the present owner.

Literature: 'Inventory of Pictures, Drawings and Objects of Vertu Collected by Thomas and Alethea, Earl and Countess of Arundel', ms. Amsterdam, 1655, no. 130; see M. Hervey, The Life, Correspondence and Collections of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, Cambridge, 1921, possibly p. 479 (as Paolo Fiamengho, 'The Four Seasons')
'Catalogue of All and Singular Pictures found in Norfolk House, St. James Sq., at the Decease of Edwd, the last Duke of Norfolk', ms. London, 11 November 1777, nos. B. 1 and B. 16 (as Joos de Momper and Jan Brueghel I)
Possibly, D. Howarth, Lord Arundel and His Circle, New Haven, 1985, pp. 56, note 5, p. 231, (as part of the '25 Pezzi di paesi fiamenghi di pittori moderni' shipped from Rome to London in 1626).

Engraved: Aegidius Sadeler, 1615.

Note: The present work most likely formed part of the six paintings, each illustrating two consecutive months of the year, which were acquired by William Smith in Rome in 1626, on behalf of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel. Representing the months of March and April, it shows figures planting out in the gardens, lower left, others working on the vines, lower right, and a group of elegant figures in the foreground venturing out into the Spring air; the Villa Medici, Rome, is also depicted on top of the hill to the upper right. The artist has also beautifully managed to conjure up the Spring season of sunshine and showers by adding a rainbow, arching over the palace and surrounding gardens, in the sky, upper right.

Other works from the series of paintings are known: the months of January/February and November/December were sold at Christie's, New York, (The Collection of J. E. Safra, 25 January 2023, lot 14, as Paul Bril, sold for $253,000) and similarly depicted an early view of Rome, in the form of the Piazza del Popolo (January/February); and July/August was sold at Christie's, New York (30 January 2014, lot 208, as Circle of Paul Bril, sold for $75,000). Given the size and number of the group of panels, it is quite possible that Bril painted these works with the help of one or more of his students active in his large studio in Rome, which included young painters such as Willem van Nieulandt, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Sebastian Vrancx, the most likely author of the present panel.

The compositions for these months of the year are known through a series of engravings executed by Aegidius Sadeler in 1615 (for March and April, see fig. 1). They are all in the same sense as the known remaining paintings but with some small differences amongst some of the finer details. These prints all record Paul Bril as the inventor of the composition.

In 1598, when Sebastian Vrancx was working in his studio in Rome, Paul Bril produced a series of twelve drawings depicting the months of the year, presumably made in preparation for the series of panel paintings. The pen and ink drawing for the month of March, along with those for May, June, July and August, is now found in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no.19786, fig. 2). The composition clearly serves as a basis for the present work with numerous elements appearing in both drawing and painting such as the figure up a ladder staking trees, centre, or the hill-top palazzo and pergola, upper left.

The complete set of six works may well have formed part of the '25 paesi fiamenghi di pittori moderni' which Smith is recorded as shipping back to London in 1626 on behalf of the voracious collector Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel who, at his death 20 years later, was recorded as being in possession of 700 paintings along with large collections of sculptures, books, prints, drawings, and antique jewellery. Later, in 1655, in the inventory drawn up after the death of the Earl's wife, Alethea, the group is given to Paolo Fiamengho (see Literature). The works then remained in the Collection of the Howard family and the Dukes of Norfolk until sold at Christie's in 1938, at which point they were divided into three pairs and described as 'A. Grimmer'. The agent in Rome responsible for securing the works for Arundel, William Smith, was to come to an unfortunate end when accompanying the Earl as a trumpeter on his unsuccessful embassy to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in Vienna in 1636.

Originating in earlier, traditional depictions of the Months of the Year in medieval and renaissance Books of Hours, the present group closely echoes that by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Executed in 1565 for Nicolaes Jonghelinck (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Lobkowicz Palace, Prague and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), each work similarly represents two months of the year.

Other highlights of the sale include: 

Lot 56. Jan Brueghel the Elder (Brussels 1568-1625 Antwerp), Hendrick van Balen (Antwerp 1575-1632) and Denis van Alsloot (Malines 1570-1628 Brussels), Orpheus charming the animals, oil on panel, 34.2 x 47cm. Estimate: £100,000 - £150,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: With Fred Kline, Texas, 1980s
Sale, Ader Picard Tajan, 29 June 1989, lot 47, where purchased by the present owner
Private Collection, France.

Literature K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel der Ȁltere (1568-1625). Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Lingen, 2008, vol. II, p. 767, no 380, Ill. p. 766.

Note: The present work is accompanied by a copy of a letter from Dr. Klaus Ertz in which he confirms the attribution to Jan Brueghel the Elder, Hendrick van Balen and Denis van Alsloot (dated 26 May 1987). In his note on the painting, Ertz suggests a date of 1605 for the work.

With Orpheus playing his lyre at the very centre of the composition, the present work shows the poet surrounded by all manner of animal life. According to Greek myth, the poet Orpheus played the lyre so sweetly that the animals gathered around him to listen, subdued by his music. The subject, at this date, was just beginning to become popular amongst the artists of Northern Europe, with only a few earlier examples known, such as Hans Vredman de Vries's commission for Danzig city council in the 1590s. Whilst Jan Brueghel the Elder became known for his 'Paradise' landscapes - exquisitely rendered lush woodland settings teeming with animal life - earning him the sobriquet 'Paradise Breughel', he is known to have painted only a handful of Orpheus charming the animals. In his Allegory of Hearing, now in the Prado, Madrid (inv. no. 1395, see fig. 1), part of his series of Allegories of the Senses executed in collaboration with Sir Peter Paul Rubens, the artist included a painting of the subject on the wall of the palace.

Collaborations between Jan Brueghel and other artists were not uncommon with the artist known to have worked with Rubens, as mentioned above, along with Joos de Momper the Younger, Hans Rottenhammer, and Sebastian Vrancx, amongst others. Early records of works by Brueghel show that he also worked with Hendrick van Balen, painter of the figure of Orpheus in the present work; in 1671, the Antwerp dealers Forchondt list two works described as 'Godenbancet van Henrico van Balen, de bijwerken van den frouweelen Breugel' (see K. Ertz, Jan Brueghel D. Ȁ, Die Gemälde, Cologne, 1979, p. 408 and 550). When the two artists worked together, Brueghel would be responsible for the landscape and still life elements and Van Balen for the figures (see, for example, the signed Feast of the Gods now in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie (gal. no. 921, which Ertz dates to a similar moment to the present painting (see fig.2).

The final artist to work on the Orpheus charming the animals was Denis van Alsloot, whom Ertz suggests was responsible for the larger animals. Given the variation in paint surface between these animals and the smaller ones, Ertz has put forward the idea that these were added at a later date, once the first layer of paint was dry, suggesting that perhaps the owner of the painting, once he had purchased it from Brueghel and van Balen, then asked van Alsloot to add these larger animals.

 Lot 69. Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges 1561-1635 London), Portrait of a girl, half-length,  in an embroidered dress with yellow lace, holding a cat, within a painted oval, dated '1616' (upper right), oil on panel,  57.2 x 43.8cm. Estimate: £50,000 - £70,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Possibly, the Nightingale family, Yorkshire and Derbyshire, early 19th Century and thence by descent to the present owners.

Note: In its treatment, the present portrait displays the attributes that made Gheeraerts the premier painter in the late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean court: beautiful drawing, soft modelling and a skilful manipulation of paint to mimic the texture and properties of various surfaces and materials. It was not unusual for Gheeraerts to depict his portraits in a similar brown feigned oval, such as his portrait of Catherine Killigrew, in the Yale center for British Art, and his celebrated portrait of Queen Anne of Denmark's jester, Tom Derry, which is in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

It was only during the period between circa 1615 and 1620 that it was fashionable to dye lace yellow, as seen in the present portrait and, for example in the Portrait of Thomas Pope by William Larkin that was sold in these rooms on 5 July 2017, lot 45 (fig.1). The sitter is wearing a necklace of what may be coral beads, which were worn by children to protect them from misfortune. Gheeraerts had lost but two of his six known children and was known for the 'sweet melancholy' of his paintings: there is a charming portrait of a boy aged two by Gheeraerts at Compton Verney. While the cat could indicate a variety of attributes, in this instance it was most likely intended to symbolise calm domesticity and comfort. 

Lot 16. Bartolomé del Castro (active Palencia, first half of 16th Century), Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist: The Baptism of Christ; John the Baptist in the wilderness; and Salome Asking Herod for the Head of Saint John the Baptist, three of a set, tempera on panel, 98.7 x 60.8cm; 98.7 x 79.2cm and 99.4 x 60.8cm. Estimate: £60,000 - £80,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Church of Requena de Campos, near Palencia, Spain
Art Market, Barcelona, by 1969 (see literature)
Private Collection, UK
With Schaeffer Galleries, New York
The Collection of John R. Blewer, Owensboro, Kentucky, by April 1969, and thence by descent to the present owner.

Exhibited: Travelling exhibition, Spanish Primitive Paintings of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries: Santa Barbara, Museum of Art, 11 July - 6 August 1961;
San Francisco, California Palace of Legion of Honour, 19 August - 17 September 1961; Pasadena, Pasadena Museum of Art, October 1961; San Diego, Museum of Art, November 1961.

Literature: C.R. Post, History of Spanish Painting, New York, 1947, vol. IX, p. 800 (as Hispano Flemish)
C.R. Post, History of Spanish Painting, New York, 1950, vol. X, p. 427 (as by Bartolome del Castro)
J. Blewer, Bartolome del Castro, circa 1500, pp.1-11, ill., fig. 4
A. Avila, Imagenes y simbolos en la arquitectura pintada espanola, Barcelona, 1993, pp.247-8, 350, ill, pl. 98
I. Mateo Gómez, 'Bartolomé de Castro, formation and style', in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, vol. 68, 2002, pp. 200, 205-6, ill, pp. 213, 218-9, figs. 15, 24-26 (as location unknown)

Note: The present works once formed part of the retable at the Church of Requena de Campos, near Palencia, Spain, and hung in the west nave. From photographs at the Amatller Institute, Barcelona, we know that it consisted of 6 panels of similar sizes, mostly depicting scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist, along with three smaller panels at the base (fig. 1). Chandler Post suggests, through close comparison to a few known signed works by the artist, such as the Madonna at Villoldo and a Saint Dominic in the Lazaro Galdiano museum, Madrid, that the author of this altarpiece is Bartolome del Castro, an artist active in the region of Palencia in the first quarter of 16th century. (Post, ibid, vol. X, p.427). 

Little is known about del Castro's life, but it is clear that he was influenced by great artists working in the area, such Juan de Flandes (circa 1460-1519) and Pedro Berruguete (1450-1504). Jose Guidol, director of Amatller Institute, Barcelona, wrote to Schaeffer Galleries in New York 'the discovery of new paintings by [Castro], as the Retable of St John, added new material which makes his artistic personality much more appreciated... he possesses a very strong personality with surprisingly tactile values. He can be pointed to as the most revolutionary personality of the School of Palencia' (see: Blewer, ibid, p. 3).

The present panels show distinctive features that can be seen in other works by the artist; the treatment of faces and meticulous detail of Herod's hair in the Salome scene recalls the bearded figure of Melchior in the Epiphany in the Lazaro Galdiano museum, Madrid; the rendering of Christ's anatomy in our Baptism scene is reminiscent of St. Onuphrius in the Masaveu Collection, Madrid; and an almost identical version of Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, with the large elongated figure against a green background, was offered at Christie's, London, 22 April 1988, lot 27.

Lot 29. Vincenzo Leonardi (Rome 1589-1657), Study of a purple heron (Ardea purpurea), numbered '2i' (lower left), gouache on laid paper, 46.7 x 34.8cm. Estimate: £25,000 - £35,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Cassiano dal Pozzo, and by descent to his brother
Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, by descent to his son
Gabriele dal Pozzo, by descent to his son
Cosimo Antonio dal Pozzo, by whom sold in 1703 to
Pope Clement XI, thence by descent to
Cardinal Alessandro Albani, 1714, from whom acquired by James Adam in 1762 for
King George III
Sold from the Royal Library, Windsor, early 1920s
With Jacob Mendelson, London, where probably purchased by
Professor Isaacs and gifted by him to the present owner's grandparents on their wedding in 1935.

Literature: H. McBurney, Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, Birds, Other Animals and Natural Curiosities, London, 2017, pp. 366-7, cat. no. 146, ill.

Note: Few countries in Europe can claim to have contributed as much to art and science in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as did Italy, and one of the people to have left an enduring legacy of his pursuit of both disciplines is the Roman intellectual Cassiano dal Pozzo. Dal Pozzo (1583-1657) had wide-ranging interests, he was secretary to the Pope's nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini and he played a significant part in the cultural landscape of Rome. He was patron to a number of artists including Poussin and was a friend of Galileo Galilei, as well as being a member of one of the earliest and most distinguished scientific academies in Europe, the Accademia dei Lincei. An important tenet of the academy – study from first-hand observation – was to inspire him to put together one of the most remarkable collections of natural history and archaeological paintings ever created, known as the Museo Cartaceo of Cassiano dal Pozzo. He had specimens sent to him from all over Europe and further afield, and he commissioned a legion of artists to record them in over 7,000 watercolours which were numbered and bound into volumes for his Paper Museum. Many of the hands have been identified and they include some renowned but perhaps unexpected artists who were then at the start of their careers, such as Pietro da Cortona, Pietro Testa and François du Quesnoy as well as others like Jacopo Ligozzi and Govanna Garzoni who are better known for their natural history studies. Vincenzo Leonardi, who painted the present study, worked for dal Pozzo for around twenty years.

The Paper Museum had a distinguished history, passing from dal Pozzo's family to Pope Clement XI, and from his descendants to King George III (who was actively acquiring for his library and art collection), arriving in London from Italy with the collection of Consul Smith in the summer of 1763. Around twenty years later, after the setting up of a Royal Bindery in Buckingham House, a number of the volumes were rebound and the watercolours remounted, in some cases with the loss, or partial loss, of inscriptions and original numbering: the burnt umber wash lines of the present piece date from this time.

A similar study of a juvenile crane was sold in these room, 3 December 2014, lot 10, for a hammer price of £80,000, a world record for this artist.

 Lot 2. Wenceslaus Hollar (Prague 1607-1677 London), View of Strasbourg from the northeast, inscribed 'Strasburg' [sic] (upper centre),pen and ink with traces of graphite on paper,4.3 x 27.8cm. Estimate: £6,000 - £8,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Collection of Henry R.M. Howard (L. 1318)
Collection of Francis Springell, before 1963
His sale, Sotheby's, London, 30 June 1986, lot 5
Collection of Dr Alfred Scharf (1900-1965) and thence by descent to the present owner.

Exhibited: Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery, Wenceslaus Hollar, 1607-1677: drawings, paintings, and etchings under revision, 25 September - 17 November 1963, cat. no. D.8.

Literature: F. Sprinzels, Hollar, Vienna, 1938, p. 74, cat. no. 117 (with measurements reversed), ill., pl. 55, fig. 280
V. Denkstein, Hollar drawings, London, 1979, p.33, fig. 13
A. Volrábová, Wenceslaus Hollar (1606-1677) Drawings, A Catalogue Raisonné, Prague, 2017, under A.III. Appendix - Missing Drawings, p. 431, no. A.III/13.

Note: Early in his professional life Hollar left his home city of Prague for Germany, the first of several countries he was to visit before finally settling in London as a result of meeting the Earl of Arundel during his travels. After two years in Stuttgart he arrived in Strasbourg in 1629 where he worked for Jacob van der Heyden's publishing house. The year he spent in Strasbourg was particularly productive and he made a number of landscape studies in and around the city. The present work is thought to be the earliest of his panoramic views and is very unusual in not having been developed into a more finished drawing or a recorded print.

There is a remarkable fluency in the way Hollar has sketched the walled city - an avenue of trees, for instance, is described by a continuous looping pen line that indicates a sketch made on the spot and at speed. It also shows he was already remarkably assured in his ability to create a sense of recession in such a small and economic drawing. Close inspection shows a series of very faint graphite lines radiating out from a pin hole in the sky to the left of the spire of the cathedral church of Notre Dame, which Hollar would have used as a guide to the perspective.

Hollar was from a well-to-do Prague family and his father was knighted by Emperor Rudolf II. One might speculate that as the son of a court official he may have been familiar with paintings in Rudolph's remarkable collection, such as those by the Brueghels, Paul Brill, Adam Elsheimer, Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel and Roelant Savery. His early prints show the influence of the court engraver Aegidius Sadeler as well as Durer's landscape etchings.

One of the 20th century owners of this drawing, Henry Howard, was a print collector whose particular area of interest was Hollar, and he assisted the Royal Librarian of the day, Sir Owen Morshead, in cataloguing the Hollar drawings at Windsor. Dr. Alfred Scharf was to acquire the drawing at a later point; he was an art historian, collector and art dealer who emigrated from Berlin to London in 1933, and he remained there for the rest of his life.