Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Details

CIRCLE OF LUCAS VAN LEYDEN (LEYDEN 1494-1533)
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
with date '1528' and monogram 'L' (lower left)
pen and gray ink, gray wash
8 1⁄8 x 8 3⁄8 in. (20.7 x 21.3 cm)

Provenance

possibly Valerius Röver (1686-1739), Delft.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 26 January 2011, lot 560.

Literature

K. G. Boon, Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, The Hague, 1978, p. 123, under no. 341.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Giada Damen, Ph.D. AVP, Specialist, Head of Sale

gdamen@christies.com +1 212 641 7532

Lot Essay

The 1739 manuscript inventory of Valerius Röver (1686-1739), a prominent collector from Delft, describes a drawing by Lucas van Leyden as ‘de Historie van Maria en Martha met de pen en gewassen [...]1528’ (the manuscript inventory is in the library of the University of Amsterdam). The entry most likely refers to the present drawing which bears the date of 1528. Another version of the composition, without date, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. 73:104; see Boon, op. cit., no. 341, ill.).

On the verso of the sheet is a quick doodle in pen and ink of a head in profile.

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