Live Auction 7744Old Masters & 19th Century Art Day Sale
Italian School, 17th Century
Lot 254

Italian School, 17th Century

A Mountebank Dentist

Closed8 July 2009

Price Realised

GBP 27,500

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Italian School, 17th Century
A Mountebank Dentist
inscribed 'Il mondo è tondo... Chi non fa navigar va al fondo' (upper left, on cartellino)
oil on panel
33¾ x 24½ in. (85.5 x 62 cm.)

The Hon. John Spencer (1708-1746), by 1742, and by descent to
The Earls Spencer, Althorp, Northamptonshire.
Private Collection.

Specialist note

This painting derives from a celebrated print by Lucas van Leyden (Leiden c. 1494-1533) entitled The Dentist, which is dated 1523 (see The Illustrated Bartsch, XII, Hans Baldung Grein, Hans Springinklee, Lucas Van Leyden New York, 1981, p. 291, no. 157). The inscription, which is absent from the print, translates 'The world is round, those who cannot float sink to the bottom'.
Other paintings based on the Lucas van Leyden print include a painting in the Kunsthalle, Bremen by Jan Liss (Oldenburg c. 1595-1600 Verona) and an anonymous copy in the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest.