Lot 16
Anonymous (Flemish, ca. 17th century). "A Standing Nude playing the Flute in a Niche" pen, brown ink, pastel, and gray wash on laid paper, n.d. A wonderful drawing created as a study of a sculpture featuring a male nude, perhaps a faun or satyr, playing a flute set in an arched niche. The muscular youth stands with legs crossed and leans on a pillar with drapery that cascades down to his hip. All is delineated in pen, brown ink, pink and white pastel, and gray wash. This piece may have been after a statue of a fluting satyr from Imperial Rome that was located in the Villa Borghese in Rome until it was purchased by Napoleon and transported to the Louvre in 1815 (catalog number: Ma 595). Attributed to a Flemish artist, this piece is likely an example of a training voyage to Italy made by a Northern artist. Size of image / paper: 3.6" W x 10" H (9.1 cm x 25.4 cm); of mounting paper: 7.5" W x 14.25" H (19 cm x 36.2 cm); of matte: 12.5" W x 19" H (31.8 cm x 48.3 cm)
"Still rare during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries due to its danger and costliness, the practice of a training voyage in Italy for foreign artists became systematic in the mid-sixteenth century. This voyage had two major aims: copying from Antiquity, as well as the confrontation and emulation prompted by observing the works of Italian Renaissance masters. Already acquainted with the artistic vocabulary of the Italian Renaissance through the circulation of engravings, and also by the presence of Italian works in Flemish territory, an additional step was taken when Northern artists decided to set out to encounter a culture that was geographically removed from their artistic centres, in an effort to grasp a new way of painting.
In his Schilder Boeck (1604), Karel van Mander recommended to Flemish and Dutch artists that they visit certain regions of Italy - and even more so to go to Rome - before opening their studios, since "Rome is the city, more than anywhere else, the travels of painters lead to, for it is the leading school for painting." He concluded by saying: "Bring back from Rome the proper manner of drawing, and from Venice, where I could not go for lack of time, that of proper painting. For I have also travelled a few roads." This last piece of advice given by van Mander precisely gives the goals of this voyage: each artistic centre should be visited for its artistic specificity, and just as one must learn the Ancients and the Moderns, which is to say equally from classical as from the Italian Renaissance masters, it was imperative to draw from the wealth and diversity of painting methods present on Italian soil. It was consequently not just a voyage to Rome that was being recommended, but indeed an initiatory voyage throughout Italy." (source: Elinor Myara Kelif, "Flemish Artists' Training Voyages in Italy" Encyclopedie d'histoire numerique de l'Europe [online], ISSN 2677-6588, published on 06/22/20, consulted on 08/08/2024.)
Royal Athena label on verso reads: "Flemish School. 17th Century. A Standing Nude playing the Flute in a Niche. Pen & brown ink, gray wash & pink body color Arched."
Provenance: ex-Royal Athena Galleries, New York City, New York, USA
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#188516
- Condition: Mounted on paper and set in custom matte with wooden backing. Small perforation to paper near bottom on foot. Slightly diagonal, horizontal crease across torso and a few minuscule light marks or scuffs near top, but imagery is still very clear. Some fraying and tearing to peripheries of matte, as well as light staining; none of which affects drawing. Verso is inscribed "De W. H." and "Lot 391 8/12/84."
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