Abraham Bloemaert* (1564-1651)

Details

Abraham Bloemaert* (1564-1651)

The Pentecost

black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash heightened with white (partly oxidized), the outlines incised, on light brown paper, pen and brown ink framing lines
18¾ x 13 5/8in. (477 x 342mm.)

Provenance

B. West (L. 419); Christie's, 3 July 1820, perhaps part of lot 70
J. Fitchett Marsh (L. 1455)
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 5 July 1988, lot 142, illustrated in color ((15,400)

Lot Essay

The left part of this drawing is, as David Lachenmann first pointed out, copied from the engraving by Cornelis Cort after Vasari (Illustrated Bartsch, 100-III). The group of the Apostles and the Holy Women is almost unchanged, but Bloemaert altered the poses of the Virgin and the Apostle in the right foreground, and omitted one of the figures.
A drawing of comparable character, of identical size to the present sheet, copied after Barocci's Urbino's Ascension is in the Albertina, Vienna, O. Benesch, Die Zeichnungen der Niederländischen Schulen des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1928, no. 422, illustrated