Attributed to Jan Snellinck the Elder (circa 1549-1638)

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Attributed to Jan Snellinck the Elder (circa 1549-1638)

The Emperor asking Bias why the Dead are buried with a Laurel Crown

numbered '26'; red chalk, pen and brown ink, blue-green wash, remains of brown ink framing lines
91 x 116 mm.
Engraved
In reverse, Gerard de Jode, Parvus Mundus, Antwerp, 1579, pl. 26 (Hollstein IX, no. 344)
In the same sense, anonymous, Parvus Mundus, Frankfurt, 1618, pl. 26

Lot Essay

This is part of a series of illustrations to the emblem-book Parvus Mundus by L. van Haecht, published in 1579 by Gerard de Jode (1509/17-1591), Snellinck's father-in-law. Seven other drawings from the series, all of similar size and technique, are in the Rjksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam (K.G. Boon, Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, The Hague, 1978, I, pp. 35-6, nos. 96-102, II, p. 39, fig. 39; M. Schapelhouman, Netherlandish Drawings circa 1600 in the Rijksmuseum, The Hague, 1987, pp. 212-3, figs. 96-102).
Traditionally attributed to Crispyn van den Broeck, Hans Mielke was the first to suggest an attribution to Snellinck for this group of illustrations (Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 38, 1975, p. 38 ff.), a view more recently affirmed by K.G. Boon, The Netherlandish and German Drawings of the XVth and XVIth Centuries of the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris, 1992, pp. 331-2, under no. 186.
The illustrations also appear in Jan Moerman, De Cleyn Werelt, Amsterdam, 1608, and in Den Gulden Winckel der Konstlievende Nederlanders..., Amsterdam, 1613, by Vondel, the numbering of which corresponds with that in the upper right of the drawings, including the present lot

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