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Landscape with the Parable of the Good Samaritan

Landscape with the Parable of the Good Samaritan

Hans Bol (in 1580)

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Specifications

Title Landscape with the Parable of the Good Samaritan
Material and technique Pen and brown ink, brown wash, indented and the reverse side prepared red all-over for transfer, framing lines with the pen in brown ink
Object type
Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location This object is in storage
Dimensions Height 197 mm
Width 271 mm
Artists Draughtsman: Hans Bol
Accession number MB 1684 (PK)
Credits Purchased 1902
Department Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date 1902
Creation date in 1580
Signature signed and dated 'Hans Bol / 1580' (at lower right, in pen and brown ink)
Watermark none (vV, 7P, fine)
Condition damaged with minor losses along the margins, traces of removed backing paper (from before the collector's mark)
Inscriptions none
Mark Museum Boymans Rotterdam (L.288)
Provenance Charles M. Dozy (1852-1901), Leiden, his sale (†), Amsterdam (De Vries), 6-7 May 1902, no. 24 (fl. 35); acquired in 1902
Exhibitions Rotterdam 2004b; Paris/Rotterdam 2014, no. 31
Internal exhibitions Het jaar rond met Bol (2004)
Vroege Nederlandse tekeningen - Van Bosch tot Bloemaert (deel 3) (2015)
External exhibitions Bosch to Bloemaert. Early Netherlandish Drawings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (2014)
Research Show research Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Literature cat. 1901, p. 22v; Jaarverslag 1902, p. 8; Franz 1963, pp. 66-85, ill. 24; Franz 1965, pp. 48, 49, 63, no. 107, pl. 91; Hollstein XXI (1980), p. 178, under no. 571; Depauw 1990, p. 12, n. 15
Material
Object
Technique
Prepare > Prepared > Shaping techniques > General technique > Technique > Material and technique
Prepare > Prepared > Shaping techniques > General technique > Technique > Material and technique
Brown wash > Washing > Wash > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Indenting > Indented > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Indenting > Indented > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin Southern Netherlands > The Netherlands > Western Europe > Europe
Geographical origin Northern Netherlands > The Netherlands > Western Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture Antwerp > Belgium > Western Europe > Europe

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

Author: Albert J. Elen

Bol has depicted an overwhelming imaginary dune landscape, with lower grounds beyond, apparently inspired by the coastal area along the North Sea, as a stage with many natural wings for the depiction of several scenes from the parable of the Good Samaritan, told by Jesus, and described in the canonic Gospel of Luke (10:25-37). The landscape, which should be situated somewhere between Jerusalem and Jericho, is also anachronistic in that it shows three church spires in the background. The ordinance of the dunes offers a spatial division for the scenes. On the right in the foreground the main scene is depicted, although it is small in relation to the background, and is therefore not immediately recognizable: the Samaritan tending to the injured stranger, a Jewish traveller beaten and stripped of his clothes by the two robbers taking off to the side at lower left, and disregarded by the two persons who just passed by, a priest and a Levite. They are continuing their journey along the main path to the left. The next scene in the story is also depicted on the right in the middle ground, where the Samaritan is taking the victim away on horseback, heading for the farm further away or to the village in the centre background, beyond the gallows-field, which will possibly be the final destination of the criminals.

This is a design for one of a series of eight prints of landscapes with various biblical subjects, published by Johannes Sadeler (1550-1600), who was probably also the engraver.1 The reverse side of the sheet has been prepared red for the transfer of the composition to the copper plate. The main contours of the composition were traced with a stylus, leaving no visual marks but the indentation which can only be seen by raking light and with the use of a magnifying glass. The mirror-image print differs from the drawing in that the traveller taken away on horseback and the two departing robbers have been omitted—the traveller replaced by bushes—concentrating on the actual subject.2

Bol has depicted the subject of the Good Samaritan more than once. The earliest is a drawing dated 1567, in which the victim is tended by the Samaritan, the horse standing by.3 The entire history is illustrated in a set of six prints, after Bol’s designs, published in or around 1572 by Chrispijn de Passe.4 Two preliminary drawings for this series, both dated 1572, are in Vienna.5 In one the victim is being robbed of his cloths, in the other the wounded man is carried away on horseback by the samaritan. The figure group of the victim attended by the samaritan, the horse standing by, very similar to the Rotterdam drawing and in the same direction, is found in another scene in this series.6 Other figures are found in a print with the parable of the Good Samaritan, engraved by Adriaen Collaert after a design by Hans Bol, which is part of a series of landscapes with biblical and hunting scenes published by Eduard van Hoeswinckel in Antwerp four years after the present drawing: the walking figure seen in the back at lower left and the group of the victim carried away on horseback are very similar to those in the Rotterdam drawing.7 Obviously, with the prints ready to hand, and probably separate sketches and studies as well, Bol had a stock of figural motifs at his disposal which he used to populate his landscapes, varying poses, gestures and other details.

Footnotes

1 Hollstein 1980, vol. XXI, pp. 177-178, nos. 565-572, vol. XXII, pp. 158-159, ills. The print after the Rotterdam drawing is no. 571; a copy in Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. Boek FA 51 10265.

2 Depauw 1990, pp. 10, 12 note 15, lists the preliminary drawings for this series but erroneously mentions a preliminary drawing recently acquired for the Antwerp print room as being the only design in which the engraver Sadeler made changes, varying figures.

3 Franz 1965, p. 60, no. 41, pl. 43 (then at C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, present location unknown).

4 Hollstein XV, 1964, p. 140, nos. 105-110; Franz 1965, p. 65, nos. 157-159, pls. 126-128.

5 Vienna, Albertina, inv. nos. 7899 and 7900; Franz 1965, nos. 60 and 62, pl. 60-61.

6 Hollstein XV, 1964, p. 140, no. 108; Franz 1965, p. 65, no. 158, pl. 127.

7 New Hollstein 2005-06, part II, no. 461, ill. (part of the series, nos. 449-472).

Show research Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
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Hans Bol

Mechelen 1534 - Amsterdam 1593

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