The Gods on Mount Olympus

This study belongs to a group of at least 107 drawings that Bramer executed circa 1652/53 after paintings by various artists (see M. Plomp et al., op. cit., p. 237). The majority of the drawings from this group are in an album in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-T-1886-A-704). Bramer numbered and wrote the name of the artist he was copying on each drawing and according to the inscription on the present sheet it was made after a painting by the artist himself. Although the corresponding painting has not been found, the foreshortened figures suggest that the drawing was made after a ceiling decoration. Two other drawings of the same subject in this group are known, numbered 15 and 17, (see M. Plomp et al., op. cit., p. 237 and W. Liedtke et al., Leonaert Bramer: 1596-1674: A Painter of the Night, exhib. cat., Wisconsin, 1992, pp. 100-1, no. 33). These, together with the present drawing, and possibly a missing drawing numbered 16, were probably made after the same ceiling decoration.