Anton MIROU (Antwerp, c. 1570 - after 1621) - Lot 79

Anton MIROU (Antwerp, c. 1570 - after 1621) The visit of the three angels to Abraham, in a landscape with castle Circular copper Width: 10.5 cm Anton Mirou belonged to a group of Protestant painters who fled religious persecution, settled in Frankenthal, a village in Rhenish Bavaria not far from Speyer, and revolutionized the art of landscape painting. instead of vast, luminous panoramas, these artists, influenced by Gillis Van Coninxloo depict romantic sites or dense forests, gnarled trees, undergrowth crossed by a undergrowth crossed by a stream, and from which emerge fantastical architectures. In this respect, our copper is a typical example of the Frankenthal school. The right-hand side and an identical landscape in a slightly larger copper by Anton Mirou, but with a secular scene, the "Paysage forestier avec château" (Galerie d'Art Saint-Honoré, Paris, 2000). Here, the artist illustrates an episode from Genesis (18, verses 1-33). Under an oak tree in Mambré (Hebron), the three received hospitality from Abraham, who washed their feet (on the right, the dish and water vessel are placed in front of the table). During the meal, they tell him that his wife Sarah will soon be mother of a son (the future Isaac). Sarah, eighty years old and barren until then, listens at the door and laughs (verse 20). She can be seen in the doorway on the right. Expert: Cabinet TURQUIN - M. Stéphane PINTA