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Lot Essay
A study for one of a series of eight engravings illustrating the states of blessedness from the Gospel of Matthew (5:1-12), demonstrated with specific Biblical passages. Christ first elucidated the blessings in the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew.
The present composition shows the 'Blessed who are Merciful' from Matthew 5:7 - 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.' The three scenes depicted in the simultaneous narrative are from the Book of Tobit, demonstrating his acts of mercy:
'If they were hungry, I shared my food with them; if they needed clothes, I gave them some of my own. Whenever I saw that the dead body of one of my people had been thrown outside the city wall, I gave it a decent burial' (Tobit 1:17-21)
The compositions for the Beatitudes follow the same format - a general condition of blessedness described through a simultaneous narrative of Biblical stories. These complex iconographic programs were a collaboration between publisher, scholar and artist. The series was published by Carel Collaert in circa 1566, and the engravings included Latin verses inscribed in the lower register by Hadrianus Junius (1511–1575), also known as Adriaen de Jonghe, a Dutch classical scholar. Heemskerck himself was an erudite, devout and versatile artist, a painter and draughtsman who made many drawings for prints, such as the present lot. He traveled to Rome in 1532 and encountered the work of contemporaries such as Raphael and Michelangelo as well as works from Antiquity. Upon his return to the Netherlands he settled in Haarlem, joining the artist's guild of St. Luke's, as well as holding lay positions in the church and political appointments.
All eight engravings were produced, but only four other drawings for the series are known: Job receiving the News of his ill Fortune at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, The Magdalen washing Christ's Feet in the Witt Collection, now part of the Courtauld, London, The Presentation in the Temple in the P. & N. de Boer Foundation, Amsterdam and David and Abigail, sold at Sotheby's, London, 27 June 1974, lot 165.
The present composition shows the 'Blessed who are Merciful' from Matthew 5:7 - 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.' The three scenes depicted in the simultaneous narrative are from the Book of Tobit, demonstrating his acts of mercy:
'If they were hungry, I shared my food with them; if they needed clothes, I gave them some of my own. Whenever I saw that the dead body of one of my people had been thrown outside the city wall, I gave it a decent burial' (Tobit 1:17-21)
The compositions for the Beatitudes follow the same format - a general condition of blessedness described through a simultaneous narrative of Biblical stories. These complex iconographic programs were a collaboration between publisher, scholar and artist. The series was published by Carel Collaert in circa 1566, and the engravings included Latin verses inscribed in the lower register by Hadrianus Junius (1511–1575), also known as Adriaen de Jonghe, a Dutch classical scholar. Heemskerck himself was an erudite, devout and versatile artist, a painter and draughtsman who made many drawings for prints, such as the present lot. He traveled to Rome in 1532 and encountered the work of contemporaries such as Raphael and Michelangelo as well as works from Antiquity. Upon his return to the Netherlands he settled in Haarlem, joining the artist's guild of St. Luke's, as well as holding lay positions in the church and political appointments.
All eight engravings were produced, but only four other drawings for the series are known: Job receiving the News of his ill Fortune at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, The Magdalen washing Christ's Feet in the Witt Collection, now part of the Courtauld, London, The Presentation in the Temple in the P. & N. de Boer Foundation, Amsterdam and David and Abigail, sold at Sotheby's, London, 27 June 1974, lot 165.