Peter de Witte, called Candid

Alfredo Viggiano (1884-1948), Venice (L.191a);

purchased by the late father of the present owner in London, circa 1960

The function of this impressive design, carefully shaped for a specific location, remains unclear; on first impression one might assume it was made as a study for a decorative painting, but the fact that the design is carefully pricked throughout for transfer on the same scale suggests the ultimate destination of the composition might perhaps have lain in the decorative arts - perhaps a piece of silverware, or even a textile, such as a clerical vestment.

Stylistically, the drawing particularly resembles certain early works by Peter Candid, such as his 1588 study for his altarpiece depicting The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, in Munich¹, but similarities in facial and figure types are also very evident in some later drawings, for example Otto von Wittelsbach before Ferrara (Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung), a study for one of the celebrated Wittelsbach tapestries, produced between 1604 and 1611.² The intensity and freedom of handling, seen here particularly in the figures surrounding Christ and in some of the architecture (especially in the lower left corner), as well as the bold use of white heightening, are characteristics seen in all drawings by this accomplished and relatively rare draughtsman.

Peter Candid was a versatile, well-travelled and highly successful artist. Born in Bruges, at the age of ten he moved to Florence, where his tapestry-weaver father had been hired to work at the newly opened Medici tapestry workshops, the Arazzeria Medicea. Candid's teacher is unknown, but his early works include altarpieces for churches in Volterra, and the biographer Karel van Mander records that he worked with Vasari on the Sala Regia in the Vatican, and on the cupola of Florence Cathedral. By 1586, he had been invited to work at the ducal court in Munich, and the rest of his career was spent in Bavaria, where he executed fresco cycles in the Munich Residenz, at Schleissheim Palace, in the town hall at Augsburg, and elsewhere, as well as receiving notable commissions for tapestry designs.

^1.Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, inv. 7795 Z; T. Vignau-Wilberg, In Europa zu Hause - Niederländer in München um 1600, exh. cat., Munich, Neue Pinakothek, 2005-6, pp. 334-5, cat. E15

^2.Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, inv. 136; B. Volk-Knüttel, Peter Candid Zeichnungen, exh. cat., Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, 1978-9, cat. 56, fig. 48