Hans Rottenhammer (German, c. 1564-1625), ³The Holy Family: Rest on the Flight into Egypt², oil on copper, unsigned, diameter 5 5/8 in., in a 19th c. gilt liner and frame, bearing traces of old labels and inscriptions; frame 10 1/2 in. square. Note: This unpublished roundel appears to be one of the earliest works attributable to Hans Rottenhammer, painted at the very beginning of his 18 year sojourn in Italy. The artist¹s departure for Italy is documented by an allegorical drawing that is inscribed as composed in 1589 in Treviso. It is interesting, in view of the figures and style of this tondo, that the principal artist from Treviso was Paris Bordone (1500-1571). It is likely that Rottenhammer admired Bordone and began his travels in Treviso to study other works by that master. This theory is supported by Rottenhammer¹s treatment of St. Joseph in this painting: its distinctively Venetian pose is similar to two figures in a Bordone drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Rottenhammer s documented as having lived in Rome from 1591 to 1595 and it is usually maintained that he began painting on copper in c. 1593. However, his earliest biographer, Carlo Ridolfi, wrote; ³At the very beginning of his career he painted small subjects on copper, which dealers frequently sold for low prices; but as his skill grew, he was much in request among great patrons, for whom he painted impressive works. The present tondo not only exactly matches Ridolfi¹s description of Rottenhammer¹s earliest copper painting, but it is also reminiscent of Bordone¹s figures of the same scene. This seated Virgin, holding a large-scale Christ Child in an upright posture, is precisely paralleled in a Bordone Rest on the Flight at Galerie Canesso, Paris. Additionally, the stance of St. Joseph, with his head cocked back over one shoulder, is identical (in reverse) to the pose of Rottenhammer¹s friend Palma Giovane, in his Self-Portrait of c.1590 in the Brera, Milan. This jewel-like early masterwork displays Rottenhammer¹s typical arrangement of a central group silhouetted against dark foliage, contrasting with a lighter bluish-green space, and bordered on the opposite side by more delicate, feathery foliage. References: Carlo Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell¹arte, 2 vols. (Venice, 1648; repr., Rome, 1965), 2: 76-77 (repr. pp. 84-85); Keith Andrews, ³Rottenhammer, Hans (Johann) I,² in Dictionary of Art, Jane Turner, ed., 34 vols. (London, 1996), 27: 227-229; Michael K. Komanecky, et al., Copper as Canvas, exh. cat., Phoenix Museum of Art (Oxford, 1999).