Meister der weiblichen Halbfiguren/Master of the Female Half-Lengths (Kreis/Circle)

Description:

Antwerpen, südl. Niederlande, um 1525/1550
83 x 112 cm
The Prodigal Son at the Strumpets. Oil/panel.
Bavarian Private Collection.
The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), or at least scenes from this story from Luke, have been depicted in many different ways in the visual arts since the 15th century. The brothel scene, in which the son squanders his father's inheritance with the prostitutes, was one of the most popular.
On our panel we see scantily clad girls and women playing music and serving two gentlemen. The table is richly laid, precious jugs of wine are being cooled in a basin of water (right), the mood is relaxed, the tablecloth with food and wine threatens to slide off the table and fall. The figures, half-sitting, half-standing, half-dancing, with awkward or drunken movements - an advanced feast. The paraphernalia is authentic to the period, right down to the instruments, a pochette and a viola da gamba. The event, covered dissolute with a pink sun cloth, takes place in a sparsely hinted landscape of ancient ruins, in which two further episodes from the story of St Luke are told in the background on the left and right: on the right the Prodigal Son as a swineherd and on the left the return home and father's welcome.
The term ‘Master of the Female Half-Length Figures’ is the notional name for a painter, presumably from the southern Netherlands or Antwerp. It is based on the comparison of unsigned and undated company and genre pieces (often with female half-length figures), which stylistically and technically suggest the same executing hand.