Horseman Swinging a Club, Seen from Behind

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Specifications

Title	Horseman Swinging a Club, Seen from Behind
Material and technique	Pen and brown ink, black chalk, brown wash
Object type	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location	This object is in storage

Dimensions	Height 216 mm Width 119 mm
Artists	Draughtsman: Anoniem
Accession number	I 233 (PK)
Credits	Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department	Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date	1940
Creation date	in circa 1420-1440
Collector	Collector / Franz Koenigs
Provenance	Leopold I Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1676-1747, L.1708b), Dessau; - ; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1928 (Verona, c. 1420); D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Research	Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Material	Brown ink > Ink > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Black chalk > Chalk > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique Pen > Artist's material > Material > Material and technique
Object	Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Technique	Brown wash > Washing > Wash > Drawing technique > Technique > Material and technique
Geographical origin	Italy > Southern Europe > Europe
Place of manufacture	Verona > Veneto region > Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Rosie Razzall

This previously unpublished drawing of a man on horseback seen from behind is by an unknown fifteenth-century artist in the vicinity of Verona. The motif of a horse seen from behind appears regularly in the work of Pisanello (1395-1455), for example in a drawing in Paris,^[1]and in his frescoes for Sant’Anastasia in Verona, for which there is a drawing on the verso of I 524, now in Moscow.^[2]As well as demonstrating the artist’s skills in foreshortening, the horse seen from behind could create visual variety in a crowd of people, as well as being a pictorial device that appears to breach the space between the viewer and the painted scene.

The Rotterdam drawing is dynamic in the pose of the rider and in the sweeping movement of his flowing cloak, but the legs of the man and horse are rather stiff and flat. The smooth outlines in pen and ink suggest that the subject is a copy after a painting or fresco, though a corresponding subject has not been identified. This is especially evident when compared with a drawing by an artist from the school of Verona of a horse in three-quarters view, also in Paris,^[3]where the feathery handling of pen and ink demonstrates a study from life. The artist in the Rotterdam sheet captures the decorative details of the horse’s harness and saddle, as well as the rider’s vicious-looking spurs. A note on the mount dates the drawing to the 1420s, and a date of the mid-fifteenth century is maintained here.