Willem Key Lot n° 2013

Willem Key Christ carrying the Cross Oil on panel. 104 x 73 cm. Certificate Dr. Ludwig Burchard, Berlin, February 1925 (as Willem Key). Provenance Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1921. - Berlin art market, around 1925. - Reinhold Collection. – Acquired in the 1980s, since then in German private collection. Literature Kunsthalle zu Hamburg. Katalog der alten Meister, Hamburg 1921, p. 107, no. 233. - F. Winkler in: Hans Vollmer (ed.): Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 19/20, Munich 1992, p. 230. - Konraad Jonckheere: Willem Key (1516-1568), Portrait of a Humanist Painter, Turnout 2011, p. 162-163, no. A84. In this painting, Willem Key creates a haunting composition showing the moment when Jesus collapses under the weight of the Cross and Simon of Cyrene takes over. Key lends the depiction its powerful character through a tight cropping and a dynamic, artfully intertwined composition of figures. The Roman soldier looks out of the picture at the viewer, drawing him into the action. His posture, mirrored in the movement of Simon of Cyrene, and the beam of the Cross draw the viewer's gaze down towards the figure of Jesus. If one compares Key's crucifixion scene with those of his Netherlandish contemporaries, such as Frans Floris or Michiel Coxie, the forcefulness of the depiction's call for compassion with Christ becomes clear. The composition of the figures is the result of a fusion of the Netherlandish pictorial tradition with the formal repertoire of the Italian Renaissance. It would be inconceivable without Willem Key's knowledge of Michelangelo's sculptures, ancient sculpture (the Laocoon group), but also the paintings of Raphael. Unlike Frans Floris or Lambert Lombard, Willem Key did not travel to Italy. He drew his knowledge from the printed works that circulated abundantly in the Netherlands, especially in Antwerp, and from the art in the possession of the Habsburg rulers. As is usual with devotional paintings, at least one replica or copy of this painting has survived, but it is of considerably lesser quality than the present work (auctioned by Christie's, London, 19.6.2020, lot 103).