Featured Trying to find info on an old wood panel painting.

No, but I never imagined the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to be quite so cheery/carefree.

My current favorite of the Bagpipe deep dive.

https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2016/12/25/my-favorite-nativity-scene/

 

They were until someone put a damper on things.

 

hmmm... I've always thought of them more as violent-mob-intent-on-sexual-assault and oh hey, what's with a society that says, "no, please rape my daughters, not my guests?"

It's possible I have issues with some biblical stories.

 

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were having too much of a good thing and of some very bad things.

Same here.

 

All right. I have finally made it through the 9 (!) pages of this thread, and just have a few observations.

The enhanced version of the seal seems to show L IX on either side of the center shaft, which could indicate the Roman numeral 59.

The four dancers may be symbolic of the four seasons.

The stain on the back seems to be applied, as others have suggested, and not simple oxidation. It seems to have been applied over the seal, meaning the seal predates the stain. There is a possibility that the stain was applied in an effort to "seal" the back of the wood. When a wood panel is painted on one side, but left uncoated on the opposite side, there is a greater tendency for the panel to warp and crack with changes in relative humidity.

@Jeanette Torello - if you are located in New York, you could try contacting the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum to see if they could take a look.

If you would like to find a professional conservator to clean the painting, you can use the search feature on the website for the American Institute for Conservation:
https://www.culturalheritage.org/membership/find-a-conservator
Conservators are often more knowledgeable about the history of materials and technology than the curators, and would probably be able to give you a better idea of the date of your painting as well.

 

Sorry, at work. Thank you, I’m so happy I found this site. Everyone has been so informative and funny, I’ve been enjoying it.

 

@Jeanette Torello I think we need another pic of the seal.

My initial twitch was also "L IX," but I had come round to "L M"... going back to it... I think we need another pic.

Being a Certified Internet Expert on Such Marks as of Which I Knew Nothing at the Start of this Thread, I believe "L M" makes more sense... in known examples, letters positioned so seem to be the initials of the owner of the mark.

 

I found the Witches Cove painting first from a detail someone posted:



Note that this painting has 2 of these devices right on the front. Although think this one means they have WiFi?

 

It does. And HD TV, the H on the left and the D on the right of the WiFi symbol.

 

=

 

This 17th century Spanish still life is also in an octagonal composition that is not quite a regular polygon. Write up makes quite a deal about how unusual this is:

https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the...f-grapes/01ae49ee-6b0b-4fc6-bd2b-774e8defba3e

While this is 19th:

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/w...ill-life-painting-octagon-shape/id-f_5214803/

 

Oh see, now I didn't look too closely at that one because it is of the ilk (e.g. H Bosch) that I find extremely unpleasant and do not examine.

Sorry I missed the cats.

And their WiFi.

 

I found a number of pieces by searching on "octagonal painting on board," but I couldn't decide if they meant anything and returned to reading about other stuff that probably doesn't mean anything, but which held my interest.

This is the last one before I quit looking: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions...ritish-paintings-day-sale-l13034/lot.224.html

 

Totally thought the internet was pranking me.

But no.

Glory of Angels (1534-1535), Dome of the Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Saronno
frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari (1471-1576)

(See the dome) https://www.flickr.com/photos/94185526@N04/16702623215/in/photostream/

 

It's this more elongated shape, with the long axis horizontal, that interests me. The ones that are closer to being a regular octagon or have a vertical long axis I put in more of a novelty class. Knew you had already poked around in this aspect, just got curious myself. Also see shape called a canted rectangle or rectangle with canted corners.

 

Even if not, you could try writing. Here is the current roster:

https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/european-paintings/staff

Stephan Wolohojian specializes in Renaissance, but bio also says baroque & Charles LeBrun, so he's not confined to that. He might know where to direct you. His e-mail should be stephan.wolohojian@metmuseum.org That's assuming they didn't misspell it when they assigned. Knew someone whose last name is Ferando but was made Fernando in her Met e-mail.

 

Octagonal wasn't all that rare, especially as part of something else. But even in individual paintings.
Jheronimus Bosch. (apologies @Jivvy )

 

I didn't poke for very long because I wasn't totally sure what I was poking at.

 

Ah, but the painting itself is round. It's not this regular octagon shape that interests me, it's what might be called a canted lozenge.