Pictor Ignotus

A Fable

He left us only the one painting, unsigned and unattributed and now vaguely dated as having probably been produced (or, at any rate, completed) at some point in the late 1650’s; but this was more than enough to secure his fame—even his legend—if only under the gray, impersonal designation of the “Master of the Dordrecht Canvas”  (or “Dort Canvas”). Of t…