Sunday, April 30, 2017

Festive Structures Memorialized by Pieter van der Borcht

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Archduke Albert and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia as Spanish Regents
making a ceremonial entry into Antwerp

1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

These illustration-spreads with hand-colored etchings are from a memorial volume published in Antwerp in 1599  Historica narratio profectionis et inaugurationis serenessimorum Belgii principum Alberti et Isabellae Austriae archiducum. Its purpose was to document and publicize the royal entry of the new Spanish Regents for the Low Countries, Archduke Albert of Austria and his wife, the Spanish Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia.

Pieter van der Borch (ca. 1540-1608) was a long-established house artist for the Plantin Press in Antwerp. He produced these well-organized scenes as summaries of the rituals that actually took place. With equal care he recorded the fabulous temporary architecture created for the festivities  the  triumphal arches dripping with ornament and shooting off flames, the decorative but functional stages erected for tableaux-vivants.

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Archduke Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia taking oaths
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Scene of Investiture in Grote Markt, Antwerp
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
The Milanese Triumphal Arch in Antwerp
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
The Spanish Triumphal Arch in Antwerp
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
The Spanish Triumphal Arch in Antwerp (rear view)
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
The Genoese Triumphal Arch in Antwerp
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
The Genoese Triumphal Arch in Antwerp (rear view)
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
The Portuguese Triumphal Arch in Antwerp
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Stage with tableau-vivant - Glorification of Agriculture
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Revolving theater with tableaux-vivants - War and Peace
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Triumphal Arch in honor of Women
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Stage with tableau-vivant - Crowning of Venus
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pieter van der Borcht for Jan Moretus at the Plantin Press
Stage with tableau-vivant - Glorification of Peace and Justice
1599
hand-colored etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Engravings and Etchings before 1600

Jacopo de' Barbari
Pegasus
ca. 1509-1516
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jacopo de' Barbari
Two old men reading
ca. 1509-1515
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Antonio Salamanca
Portraits of Lodovico Ariosto and Jacopo Sannazaro
1520-50
engraving
 (from one plate  to be separated after printing  a rare, unseparated impression)
British Museum

The truth is this, that I full oft have seen
her yvorie corps and bene with her all night,
and naked layne her naked arms between
and full enjoyne the frutes of love's delight:
Now judge who hath in greatest favour been,
to which of us she doth pertayne in right, 
and then geve place and yeeld to me mine owne,
sith by just proofes I now have made it knowne.

Just proofes? (quoth Ariodant) nay shamefull lyes,
nor will I credit geve to any word.
Is this the finest tale you can devise?
Hoped you that with this I could be dord?
No no, but sith a slander foule doth rise
by thee to her, maintaine it with thy sword.
I call thee lying traytor to thy face,
And meane to prove it in this present place.

 from Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto, translated into English heroical verse by Sir John Harrington (London: Richard Field, 1591)

Antonio Salamanca
Chariot of Diana
1541
engraving
British Museum

Jacob Binck
The Witch attacking the Devil
1529
engraving
British Museum

Virgil Solis
Design for egg-shaped vase
ca. 1530-62
etching, engraving
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Scultori
Statue of Athena, back view
1538
engraving
British Museum

Parmigianino
Tiburtine Sibyl with Emperor Augustus
before 1540
engraving
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Parmigianino
Venus and Cupid
before 1540
engraving
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Maarten van Heemskerck
Tamar and Judah
before 1574
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Federico Barocci
St Francis receiving stigmata
ca. 1580-81
 etching, engraving, with stopping-out
British Museum

Hendrik Goltzius
Leander
1580
engraving
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Jan Pietersz Saenredam after Herndrik Goltzius
Bacchus, Venus and Ceres
16th century
engraving
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Philips Galle after Johannes Stradanus
Engraving Workshop
ca. 1593-98
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The way people fly
in old engravings, so clear-cut
so credulous.

Between portraits of emperors
and soldiers, vertebrates and 
whales . . . 

– from the poem Engraving by Peter Theunynck, translated by Willem Groenewegen

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Drawings made in Italy before 1600

Andrea del Sarto
Figures behind balustrade
1522
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
   But as for me, helas, I may no more.
   The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
   Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
   Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
   As well as I may spend his time in vain.
   And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written her fair neck round about:
   'Noli me tangere for Caesar's I am,
   And wild for to hold though I seem tame.'

 Sir Thomas Wyatt (ca. 1503-1542)

Andrea del Sarto
Drapery study
ca. 1517
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Perino del Vaga
Study for St Sebastian
ca. 1511-34
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amseterdam

Perino del Vaga
Vertumnus and Pomona
ca. 1527-28
drawing
British Museum

Pellegrino Tibaldi
Christ at the Last Judgment
ca. 1550-55
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Federico Zuccaro
Statue of General standing in niche
ca. 1565-75
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Right well I wote most mighty Soveraine,
   That all this famous antique history
   Of some th'abundance of an idle braine
   Will judged be, and painted forgery,
   Rather than matter of just memory,
   Sith none, that breatheth living air, does know,
   Where is that happy land of Faery,
   Which I so much do vaunt, yet no where show,
But vouch antiquities, which no body can know.

 Edmund Spenser (ca. 1552-1599)

Federico Barocci
St Catherine of Alexandria
ca. 1560
drawing
British Museum

Federico Barocci
St Francis receiving stigmata in a landscape
1570s
drawing
British Museum

Lorenzo Sabbatini
Sibyl seated on clouds with tablet
before 1576
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

Marco Marchetti
Seated women and putto for frieze design
before 1588
drawing
British Museum

Marco Marchetti
Grotesque design with Neptune below, Jupiter above
before 1588
drawing
British Museum

Bernardino Campi
St Sebastian and Roman soldier
before 1584
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

Bernardino Campi
Standing man, from behind 
ca. 1570
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

attributed to Antonio Campi
Sibyl reading
before 1591
drawing
Royal Collection, Windsor

Virtue's branches wither, virtue pines,
   O pity, pity, and alack the time!
Vice doth flourish, vice in glory shines,
   Her gilded boughs above the cedar climb.

Vice hath golden cheeks, O pity, pity!
   She in every land doth monarchize.
Virtue is exiled from every city,
   Virtue is a fool, vice only wise.

O pity, pity! virtue weeping dies.
   Vice laughs to see her faint, alack the time!
This sinks; with painted wings the other flies.
   Alack, that best should fall, and bad should climb!

O pity, pity, pity! mourn, not sing!
Vice is a saint, virtue her underling.
Vice doth flourish, vice in glory shines,
Virtue's branches wither, virtue pines.

 Thomas Dekker (ca. 1570-ca. 1632)

17th-century European Canvases

Frans Hals
Militia Company, District IX, Amsterdam
1637
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

"A commission for a civic guard portrait was rarely granted to a painter from outside the city.  Quite exceptionally, Frans Hals  from Haarlem  was asked to paint this group portrait.  However, he soon found himself at odds with the guardsmen, and the Amsterdam painter Pieter Codde had to step in to finish the seven figures on the right.  Known for his small-scale, very smoothly and finely executed works, Codde nevertheless imitated Hals's loose style as best he could."

 curator's notes, Rijksmuseum

Jacob Adriaensz Backer
Arquebusiers' Civic Guard Company, District V, Amsterdam
1642
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Bartholomeus van der Helst
Banquet at Crossbowmen's Guild, Amsterdam
1648
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt
Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild
1662
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt
Danaë
1636
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Giovanni Baglione
Charity and Justice embracing
1622
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Windsor

Charity stand on the left holding a child, with two children standing at her feet. The child on the left supports a tablet with inscription. Charity holds the hand of Justice, who is standing on the right, and holds upright a shield, also with inscription. Above the scene is a dove and the figure of Divine Wisdom reclining on a cloud and holding a chain which binds the two below. Probably commissioned in 1617 by Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Later purchased by Charles I with the Mantua collection.

Orazio Gentileschi
Joseph and Potiphar's wife
ca. 1630-32
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Windsor

Orazio Gentileschi
Sibyl
ca. 1635-38
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Windsor

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Hercules and Omphale
ca. 1655-60
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Nicolas Poussin
Holy Family with St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Jan Victors
Angel taking leave of Tobit and his family
1649
oil on canvas
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi
River landscape with fishermen
before 1680
oil on canvas
National Trust, Great Britain

Orazio Gentileschi
Ceiling panels
Queen's House, Greenwich

ca. 1635-38
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Nine separate canvases by Orazio Gentileschi, completed in 1638, decorated the ceiling of the newly built Great Hall at the Queen's House, Greenwich. Their owner, Queen Henrietta Maria of England, enjoyed these amenities only briefly  from 1639 until 1642  "when she departed for the continent at the outbreak of the Civil War."  In the long panels around the central scene are the nine Muses. In the corners are tondi with personifications of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Music.

Orazio Gentileschi
Ceiling panel
Queen's House, Greenwich

ca. 1635-38
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain

The central roundel is an allegory of Peace Reigning over the Arts. The cloud-borne figure of Peace with olive brand and staff presides over twelve female personifications of arts and sciences, each with distinctive attributes