Auction introduction: Encompassing five centuries of European painting and sculpture, Maîtres Anciens : Peintures - Sculptures is led by three paintings that have not appeared on the public market in more than a century: Pierre Patel’s resplendent Paysage idéal avec monuments antiques, a perfectly preserved Saint Jerome by the Spanish artist Giuseppe di Ribera, and the magnificent Vase d’albâtre rempli de fleurs by Anne Vallayer-Coster, the artist’s avowed favourite of her own works and one that remained in her collection until her death. Other notable highlights include a group of four cabinet paintings by Angelica Kauffmann, also appearing for the first time at auction, and the Saint Jean Baptiste by the Venetian Palma il Giovane, once in the collection of the Marqués de Leganés. The French School is very well represented by artists ranging from the Grand Siècle with Laurent de la Hyre and Claude Vignon through to the elegant Rococo portraits of Louis Tocqué and Pierre-Antoine Demachy’s views of Paris at the dawn of the Revolution. Also strongly represented is the Flemish School, with an impressively detailed Allégorie de la vue by Jan Breughel the Younger and a whimsical Tour de Babel by Hendrick van Cleve.