0021
Johann Michael Rottmayr
(Laufen 1654 - 1730 Wien)
„The Good Samaritan“
c. 1685-95
oil on canvas
148.5 x 196 cm
Provenance
Christie's New York, 21 May 1992, lot 79;
collection Erna Weidinger (1923–2021)
According to the catalogue description at the time, Dr Erich Hubala had confirmed the painting in 1992 and suggested a dating in Rottmayr's time in Venice to 1687 or the early 1690s.
Estimate: € 20.000 - 40.000
Result: € 25.600 (incl. fees)
Auction is closed.
Under the influence of his teacher, Johann Carl Loth (1632-1698), Johann Michael Rottmayr developed into a master of moving figurative portrayals within Austrian Baroque painting. Born in Salzburg, he joined Loth's Venetian workshop as early as 1675, where he internalised his style of dramatic chiaroscuro painting combined with expressive body modelling.
The painting shows the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10, 25-37), which symbolises Christian charity. The drama of the healing is made more dynamic by the diagonal arrangement of the almost life-size, unclothed body with strong foreshortening. The present work is particularly close to a composition of the same subject by Johann Carl Loth in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (inv. no. GG 729) (cf. Giuseppe Fusari, Johann Carl Loth (1632-1698), Soncino 2017, no. 21, plate XI). Several variants of the theme are documented by both Johann Carl Loth and Johann Michael Rottmayr (cf. Erich Hubala, Johann Michael Rottmayr, Vienna/Munich 1981, p. 219, no. G 174).