Flemish School, 16th Century, 130cm, Workshop Of Master Prodigal Son 1530/1580, Red Sea Passage

Period: Flemish School, 16th century, circa 1580.
Signed: Anonymous, this painting can be attributed to the Master of the Prodigal Son, an Antwerp artist.

Sold with Certificate.

Theme: Religious, the Crossing of the Red Sea.
Technique: Oil on four oak panels – old restorations – good condition.
Size: Large format with frame 130 x 97 cm – without frame 100 x 76 cm.
Frame: Recent carved wood – good condition.
This remarkable composition is set within a typically Flemish pictorial context, with a multitude of figures and details.

This painting can be attributed to the Master of the Prodigal Son, an Antwerp artist.
This term is often used to refer to artists whose identities are unknown, who produced a number of works grouped around a painting held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna entitled The Prodigal Son Among the Courtesans (successively attributed to Mandijn, van Palermo, and then Kroes).

His style is characterized by the influence of Roman painting and some borrowings from International Mannerism.
His female figures, with their dignified, even affected, bearing, bring him close to the work of Frans Floris (1520-1570), and his realism to that of Peter Aertsen (1508-1575).
This painting shares the same atmosphere as the works of the Master of the Prodigal Son, with figures whose movements are broad and exaggerated, accentuated by improbable elongation of the limbs.
The color palette is also characteristic of the Antwerp painter's works. The Master of the Prodigal Son primarily illustrated religious themes from the Old and New Testaments. Some of his creations were mass-produced, suggesting that he headed a large workshop in Antwerp.
Around this faceless artist and his assistants, specialists have grouped some forty paintings, which can be found in several museums and churches in Europe and the United States (a Virgin and Child is on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art).

Art historians attribute to him Christ and the Pilgrims of Emmaus in the Warsaw Museum, Satan Sowing Tares in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, The Return of Tobias in the Ghent Museum, The Court of Miracles in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and Susanna and the Elders in the Porto Museum. Similarly, when consulting the Joconde database, the portal for the collections of French museums, one finds, under the title of the Master of the Prodigal Son, oil paintings on wood such as Virtue Rewarding Labor and Punishing Laziness from the Chambéry Museum, The Wedding at Cana from the Rouen Museum, The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist from the Pau Museum, The Works of Mercy from the Valenciennes Museum, and The Old Man in Love from the Douai Museum.

The Crossing of the Red Sea is a biblical and Quranic story in which the sea, blocking the passage of the Israelites fleeing the Egyptian army, miraculously parts to allow the Israelites to pass through and closes on their pursuers. The Hebrews are facing the Red Sea, or Sea of Reeds, when the Egyptian troops give chase. Moses stretches out his hands toward the Sea, whose waters part to allow a passage. The people enter the channel.
In turn, the Egyptians entered the sea, but Moses returned it to its place, engulfing Pharaoh's troops. This story is considered one of the founding events of Judaism, establishing its belief in miraculous redemption by a personal God. It is traditionally read on the seventh day of Passover.
The Exodus from the Red Sea is the ancient mythical account of a divine war (a conflict between the Creator God and the primordial Ocean, such as the Canaanite myth of Baal versus Yam), taken up by a priestly author who historicized the myth by placing it in the biblical context of the deliverance of the Hebrew people from the Egyptians.

Sold with Invoice and Certificate.

Painting on display at our gallery in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (France) on weekends.
Free shipping within France.
Shipping abroad available upon request.

Leasing options available through our financial partner; response within 24 hours.
Contact us…