Attributed to Jan Woutersz. Stap (Amsterdam 1599-1663)

The present lot derives from the Entombment by David de Haen of circa 1620, painted for Vicenzo Giustiniani in Rome and listed in his inventory (in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin; destroyed by fire in 1945). The figures in the left hand corner also show the influence of Dick van Baburen's Entombment of circa 1617, painted for the high altar of the Pieta Chapel in the Church of San Pietro il Montorio in Rome and still in situ (see A. von Schneider, Caravaggio und der Niederländer, 1967, p. 130, no. 18A).

The present composition must have been painted by Stap while he was working in Rome, probably at the time that both van Baburen and De Haen lived and worked there.

We are grateful to Prof. L. Slatkes for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a photograph.