The Greatest Private Collection of Baroque Masterpieces Assembled in Modern Times

THE FISCH DAVIDSON COLLECTION To Star at Sotheby’s in January 2023

Highlighted by Key Early Rubens Masterpiece Salome Presented with The Severed Head of Saint John the Baptist 

Estimated to sell for $25 - 35 million 

 

Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, c.1609, Estimate $25,000,000 – 35,000,000 

 

“What distinguishes the Fisch Davidson collection is the sustained level of quality of the paintings, combined with a willingness to embrace powerful subjects that lesser collectors might find “difficult”. There is nothing shy about these pictures…. These are baroque paintings that speak with a contemporary voice. Their modernity lies in their probing, psychological dimension combined with dramatic flair, realized with brilliantly descriptive brushwork.”

Keith Christiansen, Curator Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

 

NEW YORK, 25 October 2022 - Collected with passion and rigor over three decades, the Fisch Davidson collection distills the essence and power of Baroque art between 1600 and 1650, comprising some of the very finest paintings in private hands by Guercino, Bernardo Cavallino, Valentin de Boulogne, Orazio Gentileschi and above all Sir Peter Paul Rubens, which together provide a comprehensive sense of the key artistic currents flowing through early 17th-century Europe. This January, 10 works from the collection will headline Sotheby’s Master’s Week Auctions, led by the jewel of this unparalleled collection, Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist.  Painted at exactly the same moment in his career as the great Massacre of the Innocents (the Rubens that shattered all price records for Old Masters when auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2002), the Fisch Davidson Rubens was believed to have been lost, prior to its rediscovery in 1998. 

 

As George Wachter, Sotheby’s Chairman and Co-Worldwide Head of Old Master Paintings, has noted:

 

“The Fisch Davidson collection began in earnest when the early rediscovered masterpiece by Guercino of Jacob Holding Joseph’s Bloodied Coat appeared in a Sotheby’s New York sale in January of 1995…. It was from that early acquisition that a tone and taste level for the collection was established. For me personally, it became immediately apparent that only the boldest images of best quality by the greatest artists would be considered. Indeed, that is what the ultimate result was.”  

 

Christopher Apostle, Sotheby’s Head of Old Master Paintings in New York, commented: “ One would be hard-pressed to uncover a more exemplary collection of Baroque masterpieces, and I count myself lucky to have been able to encounter works of this caliber up close. Each of these artists had a hand in shaping art of the 17th century; and each still has the power to strike awe today, from the extreme emotion of Guercino’s Jacob to the beguiling beauty of Procaccini’s smiling Judith. Rubens’ remarkable Salome presented with the severed head of St. John the Baptist is the inimitable jewel in the carefully curated collection, in so many ways epitomizing the very essence of the Baroque.” 

 

Through a series of immensely careful, thoughtful acquisitions, the collection was subsequently enriched by strikingly complementary and equally exceptional paintings by Guercino’s leading contemporaries, including key works by Bernardo Cavallino and Valentin de Boulogne, and the third of the famous “Sauli” paintings by Orazio Gentileschi, the other two of which are at the Getty Museum.  Over the years, paintings from the Fisch Davidson collection have featured prominently in major museum exhibitions globally, at The National Gallery, London; the Prado, Madrid; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (where Mark Fisch has long been a trustee) and elsewhere. 

 

“Rubens’ depiction of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, painted after his return to Antwerp, is a work in which the still young artist fearlessly explores the violent and sexual dynamics of the Biblical narrative like some pre-cinematic Martin Scorsese. It’s the kind of painting that, once seen, you won’t forget.”

 

Keith Christiansen, Curator Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

 

Long believed lost until its rediscovery in 1998, this shocking and beautiful panel is an important work from the period shortly after Rubens returned to his native Flanders from his sojourn to Italy. Dating to around 1609, the painting depicts the cautionary tale of Salome, which was popular in the early 17th century for its message to be wary of cunning and powerful women – a theme Rubens would address again in the same year, in his masterpiece Samson and Delilah, which resides in London’s National Gallery. The present work was on loan at the National Gallery in the early 2000s, and subsequently exhibited beside Samson and Delilah in the museum’s 2005-2006 exhibition Rubens: A Master in the Making.

 

Salome presented with the severed head of St. John the Baptist last appeared at auction over 25 years ago in 1998, when it realized $5.5 million - a record at the time - and returns to the auction block this January with an estimate of $25 – 35 million.  The work is one of only three important paintings of historical and biblical scenes by Rubens ever to have come to auction, the other two of which rank among the most valuable old masters ever sold.

 

Little is known about the commission for the painting, but it is documented in Spanish royal inventories from 1666 until 1700. Rubens marketed himself to Spanish patrons from early in his career, making many trips to Spain, and probably received this commission from one of the many Spanish aristocrats who traveled through Antwerp in those years. This work is his only treatment of this subject executed for a private patron rather than a religious setting.

 

In this composition, Salome is based on the same female model and wears same red satin dress and yellow satin cloak as Delilah in Samson and Delilah, which had been commissioned to hang above the fireplace of Nicolaas Rockox - a mayor of Antwerp and important patron and friend to Rubens. The size of this work suggests it was originally hung in a more intimate setting. Like Salome, Delilah uses her feminine wiles to ensnare the unsuspecting hero Samson, cut off his hair, and cause his downfall. Rubens painted a third work that echoes the theme of dangerously powerful women in 1609: the now lost Judith and Holofernes. 

 

At the wedding feast of King Herod and Herodias, King Herod was so taken with his new daughter-in-law Salome's dancing that he promised her whatever gift she desired. St. John the Baptist had recently condemned the union of Salome's mother Herodias with her own brother-in-law, Herod, and for that offense, she requested his head. In this work, Rubens depicts the moment after the beheading, as the executioner begins to sheath his sword. Salome scolds the head on the silver platter, and the maidservant nearby pulls on his tongue, highlighting both the gruesomeness of the scene and the reason for his execution - his outspoken admonishment of incest. The masterful composition includes six figures, each reacting differently to John the Baptist’s body and severed head.  

 

Rubens returned from Italy in 1608 full of all he had seen and studied there, both Renaissance and Classical, and immediately produced a series of paintings of towering significance within his work, reinterpreting these Italian and classical inspirations, and in particular Michelangelo, in his own uniquely powerful idiom.  In the span of barely three years, he painted: the great Raising of and Descent from the Cross triptychs, for the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium; Samson and Delilah, in The National Gallery in London, The Massacre of the Innocents in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, and Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist in the Fisch Davidson collection – the only product of this extraordinary onrush of creative energy still in private hands. In style, palette, subject matter, naturalistic detail, and emotion, the relatively intimate panel contains all the drama, violence, and emotional power of the Baroque era.

 

The collection was unveiled this morning in a special preview exhibition, featuring a performance by Baroque instrumentalist Marc Armitano Domingo. Works from Baroque: Masterpieces from the Fisch Davidson Collection will be on public view in New York now through 27 October, and from 4 - 13 November as part of Sotheby’s marquee auction week exhibition. Highlights will travel to Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and London this fall, before returning for pre-sale exhibition this January in New York.