BAVARIAN SCHOOL, CIRCA 1600

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.