Saturday, October 21, 2017

Fourteen 16th-century Graphic Artists of Europe

Marcantonio
Apollo and Hyacinthus
1506
engraving
British Museum

follower of Raphael
Apollo and Hyacinthus
ca. 1515-47
drawing
British Museum

"Hyacinth, son of the Spartan king Amyclas, was a youth of extraordinary beauty and was beloved by both Apollo and Zephyrus.  Only the love of Apollo did he return.  While he was playing at quoits with Apollo, Zephyrus, out of jealousy, blew the quoit with such force against the head of the youth that he fell down dead.  From the blood of Hyacinth there sprang the flower of the same name."

 from curator's notes at the British Museum

Lucas van Leyden
Raising of Lazarus
ca. 1508
engraving
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 

Hans Baldung
Crucifixion
1514
chiaroscuro woodcut
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Giulio and Domenico Campagnola
Concert by a brook
1516-17
engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin

Barthel Beham
Virgin and Child in window
ca. 1520-40
engraving
British Museum

Ugo da Carpi after Parmigianino
Diogenes
ca. 1524-27
chiaroscuro woodcut
Princeton University Art Museum

Cornelis Bos after Maarten van Heemskerck
Statue of Bacchus by Michelangelo
 in the Belvedere Gardens, Rome
ca. 1530-56
engraving
British Museum

Virgil Solis
Temperance
1541
drawing
British Museum

Bernardino Gatti
Standing youth in armour
ca. 1543-47
drawing
British Museum

"The drawing has an old attribution to Giorgione and was sold as such in the 1860 Woodburn-Lawrence sale.  In May 1950 it was transferred by A.E. Popham to Pordenone (attributed to).  In December 2000 it was moved to Bernardino Gatti because it relates to two figures in the 'Crucifixion' in the Civiche Collezioni d'Arte del Comune di Parma. The pose of the standing soldier holding a lance in the right background of the work faithfully follows that of the figure studied on the left.  The only differences between the painting and drawing are in minor details of costume (he wears boots), and the description of the soldier's face, an area only roughly sketched in the drawing, which is given a more individual character by the addition of the beard.  The main aim of the drawing appears to have been to work out the lighting reflected in the polished and curved surfaces of the armour, the highlights studied here through use of white heightening.  The design of the helmet studied in the smaller study differs quite substantially from the one shown in the painting, the latter having no plume and a mask rather than an acanthus design at the front.  A drapery study in the Uffizi is related to the same work.  The 'Crucifixion' was almost certainly painted for the church of Sant'Anna in Piacenza, before being removed by Francesco Farnese in 1715 and substituted by a copy.  It was most likely painted in the period 1543-47 during the artist's first period in the city.  Popham's attribution to Pordenone for the present drawing was an acute one because he was the formative influence on Gatti during this period."

 from curator's notes at the British Museum

Lambert Suavius
Sibyl in niche holding jar and lid
ca. 1550
engraving
British Museum

Taddeo Zuccaro
Study for Sibyl in half-lunette
ca. 1553-56
drawing
British Museum

"The attribution to Taddeo Zuccaro, first suggested by James Byam Shaw, was confirmed by J.A. Gere's subsequent identification of the sheet as a study for the right-hand sibyl in the lunette above the altar in the Mattei Chapel in S. Maria della Consolazione, Rome, which, according to Vasari, was decorated in 1553-56.  The figure in the fresco is shown leaning against a stuccoed volute that forms part of the pediment over the altar-piece of the 'Crucifixion'.  Except for the greater prominence given to the upper body and the right leg in the study, the position of the figure in both works is much the same."

 curator's notes from the British Museum

Johannes Stradanus
Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well
1567
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Luca Cambiaso
Martyrdom of St Lawrence
before 1585
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem