Courant 8 - CODART

25 codart Courant 8/June 2004
figure drawings: biblical narratives by
Maarten van Heemskerck (The parable of the
great supper, 1569) and Karel van Mander (The
conversion of Paul, 1587); a mythological scene
by Hendrick Goltzius (Diana and the nymph
Callisto); and studies for drawings by Jacques
de Gheyn iii(Nude studies) and for a sculpture
by Adriaen de Vries (Apollo). A large group of
18th-century landscapes, whose artistic
quality fails to match that of the works listed
above (Hendrik Spilman, Leendert Brasser), did
not find its way into the present exhibition.
Although larger than in most of the
aforementioned institutions, the collection
of Netherlandish drawings in the National
Museum in Warsaw contains items varying
in provenance and artistic value. These were
either purchased or came to the museum as
donations or permanent loans, for example
from the priest Józef Mrozowski in 1908,
Mathias Bersohn (1823–1902) in 1916, or from
Seweryn Smolikowski in 1927. The museum
was established in 1862 as the Museum of Fine
Arts and has been known under the present
name since 1916. After the Second World War,
in which roughly half of the collection was
destroyed, the museum acquired the holdings
of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine
Arts in Warsaw, including the notable bequest
of Jan Gottlib Bloch (1836–1902), as well as the
collection of the former Schlesisches Museum
der bildenden Künste in Breslau and the
album Dessins Originaux, which had been kept
in the local Stadtsbibliothek. Of special
interest in this group are two drawings by
Ferdinand Bol – Saul visiting the witch of Endor
and Abraham’s sacrifice (the latter not included
in the exhibition); two sketches for the print
Land-yacht by Jacques de Gheyn ii; Singing old
woman by Gerrit van Honthorst; and two
sheets by Crispijn van den Broeck, Resurrection
and Pentecost. Among the most noteworthy is
the set of figure and landscape studies by and
after Cornelis and Herman Saftleven (three
works have been selected for the exhibition)
and several drawings by Jan de Herdt, a
Flemish artist active in Italy, Austria, Moravia
and probably Silesia whose works are
exceedingly rare. (One will be presented in the
exhibition.)
Despite its small size, the collection of
Dutch and Flemish drawings in the National
Museum in Poznan´ is among the most
valuable, largely because of Rubens’s Rest on the
flight into Egypt, and his design for a woodcut
by Christoffel Jegher (property of the
Dzial-yn´ ski Foundation), in which the
draftsmanship of the ‘Prince of Painters’ found
its supreme expression. These are matched in
excellence by the exquisite series of the Twelve
months by Lambert van Noort and Maarten van
Heemskerck’s Abraham and Sara leaving Egypt
(1549). Equally small in number and also of
high quality are the works in the collection of
the Museum of the Czartoryski Princes in
Kraków, which was assembled mainly by
Ladislaus Czartoryski (1828-1894) in Paris, and
was further enlarged by later acquisitions and
an 1897 donation by Bolesl-aw Wol-odkowicz.
Works from this collection presented in the
exhibition include a winter landscape by van
Goyen as well as Adam and Eve by Johan Wierix.
Most noteworthy in the modest collection
of Netherlandish drawings held in the
National Museum in Wrocl-aw are the
religious scenes by Willem van Mieris the
Younger, two of which have been selected for
exhibition, together with Abraham
Bloemaert’s putti. (This collection includes
parts of the former holdings of the Schlesisches
Museum der bildenden Künste.) The selection
was completed with excellent, though rare,
works from the Jagiellonian Library (Philips
Koninck); the Wawel Royal Castle (Abraham
Diepenbeeck) in Kraków; and the National
Library in Warsaw (Jacques de Gheyn ii).
The Warsaw exhibition will offer an
overview of all major artistic trends and circles
working in the Low Countries throughout the
16th to the first half of the 18th centuries.
Hence the absence of some great names (such
as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Bartholomeus
Spranger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Anthony van
Dyck, Willem van de Velde the Younger)
– the result of gaps in Polish collections and
preservation considerations – was not a major
obstacle in executing the project. Polish
collections hold hardly any 15th-century
Netherlandish drawings, and the best of the
few present, Female heads by Gerard David in
the Museum of the Czartoryski Princes in
Kraków, could not be displayed due to
preservation considerations. Consequently,
the only works representing the so-called
Flemish Primitives are a St. John from the
Ossolineum, which is associated with Dieric
Bouts, and a Transfiguration by an unidentified
artist from ca. 1500 (from the National
Museum in Warsaw).
The 16th-century section of the exhibition
will open with a group of Renaissance figure
drawings (Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Lambert
Lombard, Jan van Scorel); this will be followed
by a large and varied group of early Mannerist
sheets (Maarten van Heemskerck, Lambert van
Noort, Crispijn van den Broeck, Marten de Vos,
and the workshop of Frans and Cornelis Floris)
and the first examples of landscape drawing,
some with landscape only, others combined
with genre or biblical scenes (Master of the
Months of Lucas, Master of the Prodigal Son,
Cornelis Massys, Hendrick van Cleve iii, Joris
Hoefnagel’s View of Andernach on the Rhine).
Clearly distinguishable in the group of late
Mannerist works (Lodewijk Toeput, Jan van
der Straet, Jan Wierix, Joos van Winghe, Denys
Calvaert, Pieter de Witte) is the international
trend, represented by drawings by
Johan Wierix, Adam and Eve, Princes Czartoryski Foundation at the National Museum, Kraków.