Prague School, circa 1600
Study of an Artist Looking at a Drawing
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Prague School, circa 1600
Study of an artist looking at a drawing
Red and black chalk, the sheet extended at the top;
bears attribution in brown ink on the old mount: Federico Barocci
and further inscribed: B (?)
159 by 119 mm; 6¼ by 4¾ in.
Despite the old attribution to Federico Barocci which is inscribed on the mount, this appealing and distinctively handled red and black chalk drawing must surely be by an artist from north of the Alps. There are certain similarities with some works by Peter Candid (1548-1628) and his Munich contemporaries, but the strongest correspondence is with the drawings produced in the years around 1600 by the artists working at the Prague court of the Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612). The figure type, approach to subject-matter and particular combination of chalks – soft yet strikingly contrasting in colour – are all characteristic of this very original artistic milieu.
Technically, the well-known drawing of Cupid Stung by Bees Running to Venus, by Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn (c.1540-1608)1, is similarly handled, but perhaps the best comparisons are with one or two of the late (1615-20) drawings by Jan Harmensz. Muller (1571-1628), such as A Couple Kissing, in Budapest.2
1. Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, inv. 314; T. Gerszi, The New Ideal of Beauty in the Age of Pieter Bruegel, Sixteenth-Century Netherlandish Drawings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, exh. cat., Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, 2012, pp. 160-61, cat. 64
2. Budapest, Szépművészeti Múzeum, inv. 1422; Gerszi, op. cit., pp. 181-2, cat. 74
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