The Virgin of the Annunciation

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Specifications

Title	The Virgin of the Annunciation
Material and technique	Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, indented for transfer, faint framing lines with the pen and black chalk, on (discoloured) blue paper, which is entirely covered with charcoal on the reverse
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 247 mm Width 187 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Abraham Bloemaert
Accession number	AB 11 (PK)
Credits	Purchased 1930
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1930
Creation date	in circa 1615-1618
Signature	none
Watermark	large crowned coat of arms (of Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau, 1567-1625; double quartered shield with postal horn, rampant lion, walking lion, bend and heart shields) (vH, 7P)(113x86 mm, on P2-5 from the left), very similar to Heawood 606 (no place, 1601 or after). The same watermark also present in inv.nr. MB 1961/T 41 by Bloemaert and in a Bloemaert drawing in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, inv. 1985-T.29 (Boon 1992, no 13). [AE] [for image click thumbnail above the 'zoom in' option]
Condition	worn lower left corner, smudged along the lower margin
Inscriptions	'Fr' [?] (difficult to read; verso, top margin)
Mark	none
Provenance	Samuel van Huls, his (†) sale, The Hague (Swart), 14 May 1736 sqq., Album K, no. 439 (‘L’Annonciation de la Vierge’, one of two sheets); Dionis Muilman, his (†) sale, Amsterdam (De Bosch a.o.), 29 March 1773 sqq., Album N, no. 962 (‘De Boodschap aan Maria’, together with the print), fl. 20, to Metayer [copy RKD]; Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726-1798), Amsterdam, his (†) sale, Amsterdam (Van der Schley a.o.), 3 March 1800, Album X no. 6 (‘Twee stuks, toepasselyk op de Boodschap aan Maria […], door A. Bloemaert’, one of two drawings), fl. 15 to Andriessen [copy RKD]; Sale London (Sotheby’s) 25 July 1922, no. 44 (one of two sheets); acquired by the museum, 1930
Exhibitions	Rotterdam 1980; Paris/Rotterdam 2014, no. 108
Internal exhibitions	Vroege Nederlandse tekeningen - Van Bosch tot Bloemaert (deel 2) (2015)
External exhibitions	Bosch to Bloemaert. Early Netherlandish Drawings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (2014) Bosch to Bloemaert. Early Netherlandish Drawings (2017)
Research	Show research Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Literature	Roethlisberger 1993, vol. 1, p. 216, under no. 277; Plomp 2001, pp. 202-203; Bolten 2007, no. 71
Material	Paper > Vegetable material > Organic material > Material > Material and technique Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Brown ink > Ink > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Pen > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Charcoal > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Indenting > Indented > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique Indenting > Indented > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique Brown wash > Washing > Wash > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique Heightened with white > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	The Netherlands > Western Europe > Europe

Entry catalogue Netherlandish Drawings of the 15th and 16th Centuries.

Author: Albert J. Elen

This is an intermediary design for the undated print of the same size and in the same direction, engraved and published by Crispijn de Passe the Elder.^[1]The drawing is not the final design for the print as it is not in mirror image and it differs in details, especially the position of the right hand and the figures decorating the lectern. It is undoubtedly the primo pensiero, a composition sketch, which Bloemaert worked out in greater detail into an improved design, now lost. For that purpose the composition was transferred to that other sheet of paper by dusting the reverse with charcoal or black chalk and then tracing the outlines.[2] Bloemaert then made changes, turning the Virgin’s right hand to touch her bosom, adding a cloth beneath the opened book on the lectern, and reshaping the indistinct full-length human figures (possibly satyrs) supporting the prie-dieu (reading-desk) into volutes with breasted winged torso figures He also worked out details like the chair, the draperies and the book clasps.

Until the 1922 sale[3] this drawing was kept together with a drawing of the archangel Gabriel kneeling on a cloud and holding a lily, now in Granville, Ohio[4], which is a design for the counterpart print engraved on a separate copper plate, likewise in the same direction, by Willem de Passe.[5] The representation of the Annunciation in separate scenes is remarkable. A division like this is unusual at that time and reminds us of side panels of a polyptych.[6] An explication may be that the two prints are part of a series of individual biblical figures. Two prints representing David and Simeon, engraved after designs by Bloemaert by Willem and Crispijn de Passe and issued by the latter, just like the prints of Gabriel and the Virgin, are of almost equal dimensions and have similar neo-Latin texts in the same calligraphic hand, with the same French royal privilege inscribed.[7] The series may have included designs by other artists, including Crispijn de Passe.

The figures of the Virgin and the Archangel were probably inspired by Goltzius’s panel painting now in Moscow, which is dated 1609.[8] The watermark in the Rotterdam sheet, unnoticed so far, representing the personal coat of arms of Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau (died 1625), fits the suggested date for the print, and consequently the date for the preliminary drawing, given by Roetlisberger, c. 1615-1618.[9] The same type of watermark is found in Bloemaert’s Rotterdam drawing (inv. no. MB 1961/T 41) and in his drawing King David Playing the Harp in Paris, which can be dated around 1620-1625.^[10]

Footnotes

[1] Hollstein II, 1950, p. 68, no. 495, Hollstein XVI, 1974, p. 10, no. 14ad; Roethlisberger 1993, vol. 1, no. 277, vol. 2, ill. 410; Bolten 2007, vol. 1, p. 43, under no. 71, vol 2, p. 44, ill 71a.

[2] This has gone unnoticed so far.

[3] There is uncertainty about the provenance of this drawing, which was bought in 1930 according to the inventory file, but is not mentioned among the acquisitions in the yearly report of that year. The provenance until 1922 was traced by Bolten.

[4] Bolten 2007, no. 70.

[5] Roethlisberger 1993, vol. 1, no. 276, vol. 2, fig 409; Bolten 2007, vol. 1, p. 43, under no. 70, vol 2, p. 43, ill. 70a.

[6] Bolten 2007, vol. 1, p. 44.

[7] Roethlisberger 1993, nos. 274-275, vol. 2, ill. 407-408. Roethlisberger dates these two designs in the same period as Gabriel and the Virgin of the Annunciation, c. 1615-1618.

[8] Roethlisberger 1993, vol. 1, p. 216.

[9] Bolten suggests a later date for the two drawings, c.1625-35.

[10] Boon 1992, vol. 1, p. 29 under no. 13, vol. 2, p. 87 no. 13, ill. (tracing).

Show research Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

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