DOI article:
Wouk, Edward H.: Frans Floris and disegno: a return to the question
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51714#0067
which Floris’s disegno functioned within the Creative
atmosphère of his Antwerp workshop.
Otto van Veen is generally credited with pioneer-
ing the monochrome oil sketch in the North before
Rubens perfected the technique.93 The Christ Carrying
the Cross may indicate that the genealogy of the oil
sketch in the North reaches back at least a génération
earlier to the era of Van Veen’s teacher, Isaac van
Swanenburg, who is named by Van Mander as one of
Floris’s pupils and may have encountered an early at-
tempt at the technique in his master’s workshop.94 As
in many of Van Veen’s oil sketches, the Christ Carrying
the Cross also includes a pen and ink underdrawing
in areas of the human figure,95 and while Van Veen
painted his sketches on paper, Floris also produced
detailed painted head studies on paper, perhaps for
subséquent mounting on canvases or panels.96
This is not the first suggestion that Floris may
have pioneered the use of the oil sketch in the
North. Dora Zuntz accepted a panel depicting Ve-
nus Mourning the Death of Adonis in the Schlesisches
Museum at Breslau as an autograph work by Floris
and termed it a “Skitye”. Zuntz did not remark,
however, that such a panel, if indeed by Floris, would
represent the earliest recorded oil sketch in Flemish
art.97 Van de Velde rejected the work from Floris’s
œuvre, highlighting the implausibly late date of 1565
that Zuntz had assigned it and reiterating that the
Italian conception of the oil sketch did not reach
Antwerp until Rubens’s return to that city.98 Extant
photographs of the destroyed Breslau work are not
of sufficient quality for a thorough considération of
attribution. But the size of the panel, the scale of the
figures, and the similarity of Venus’s pose to those of
Mary and the Magdalene in the Léau and Arnstadt
paintings, as noted by Zuntz,99 all suggest that the
work may have been made in the same artistic circle
as the Christ Carrying the Cross. If these sketches were
not produced in Floris’s own workshop, they clearly
originate in an atelier intimately aware of Floris’s
iconographie, stylistic, and practical innovations.
The existence of an oil sketch within Floris’s
milieu, even if not in his own hand, may further
reflect Floris’s contact with Venetian art and pos-
sibly even the early works of Tintoretto — himself a
prominent innovator of the oil sketch technique100
— although an exact point of contact remains unclear.
The genesis of Floris’s disegno in Lombard’s studio
marked a departure from the use and conception of
drawing in the Low Countries at mid-century. The
drawings considered here underscore Floris’s own
innovations in the multifaceted practice of disegno
as an aid to recollection, a medium of intellectual
inspiration, a means of artistic expression, and a
workshop implement. Floris’s approach to drawing
left a powerful but still largely unexplored héritage
for the générations of Antwerp artists up to and
including Rubens.101
93 HELD, J.: The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical
Catalogue. Princeton 1980, Vol. 1, p. 8; and SUTTON - WIE-
SEMAN 2004 (see in note 89), pp. 17-18.
94 VAN MANDER 1604 (see in note 31), fol. 242v; and MIE-
DEMA 1994 - 1999 (see in note 31), Vol. 4, pp. 43-44; VAN
DE VELDE 1975 (see in note 3), Vol. 1, pp. 110-111.
95 LOGAN, A.-M. - PLOMP, M. C.: Peter Paul Rubens: The
Drawings. New Haven — London 2005, p. 20, n. 83.
96 Two such examples are recorded, both in oil on paper: Dres-
den, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. No. 1967-52; 172 X 153 mm,
unmounted; another, sold, Colnaghi, New York, illustrated
in May-June 1998 catalogue, No. 8, cover ill.; oil on paper
laid down on canvas, 294 X 333 mm.
97 Oil on panel, 48.5 X 36.5 cm, signed FFF; Breslau, Schle-
sisches Museum der bildenden Künste, Inv. No. 210. See
ZUNTZ 1929 (see in note 3), pp. 89-90.
98 VAN DE VELDE 1975 (see in note 3), Vol. 1, pp. 68-69,
No. 2.
99 ZUNTZ 1929 (see in note 3), p. 89.
10('HELD 1980 (see in note 93), pp. 7-8.
101 See Ibidem, p. 6; and SUTTON - WIESEMAN 2004 (see in
note 89), pp. 110-113, Cat. No. 10, for the Head of a Negro of
same dimensions as many Floris head studies (oil on panel,
45.6 X 36.8 cm; Hyde Collection, Glenn Falls, New York).
61
atmosphère of his Antwerp workshop.
Otto van Veen is generally credited with pioneer-
ing the monochrome oil sketch in the North before
Rubens perfected the technique.93 The Christ Carrying
the Cross may indicate that the genealogy of the oil
sketch in the North reaches back at least a génération
earlier to the era of Van Veen’s teacher, Isaac van
Swanenburg, who is named by Van Mander as one of
Floris’s pupils and may have encountered an early at-
tempt at the technique in his master’s workshop.94 As
in many of Van Veen’s oil sketches, the Christ Carrying
the Cross also includes a pen and ink underdrawing
in areas of the human figure,95 and while Van Veen
painted his sketches on paper, Floris also produced
detailed painted head studies on paper, perhaps for
subséquent mounting on canvases or panels.96
This is not the first suggestion that Floris may
have pioneered the use of the oil sketch in the
North. Dora Zuntz accepted a panel depicting Ve-
nus Mourning the Death of Adonis in the Schlesisches
Museum at Breslau as an autograph work by Floris
and termed it a “Skitye”. Zuntz did not remark,
however, that such a panel, if indeed by Floris, would
represent the earliest recorded oil sketch in Flemish
art.97 Van de Velde rejected the work from Floris’s
œuvre, highlighting the implausibly late date of 1565
that Zuntz had assigned it and reiterating that the
Italian conception of the oil sketch did not reach
Antwerp until Rubens’s return to that city.98 Extant
photographs of the destroyed Breslau work are not
of sufficient quality for a thorough considération of
attribution. But the size of the panel, the scale of the
figures, and the similarity of Venus’s pose to those of
Mary and the Magdalene in the Léau and Arnstadt
paintings, as noted by Zuntz,99 all suggest that the
work may have been made in the same artistic circle
as the Christ Carrying the Cross. If these sketches were
not produced in Floris’s own workshop, they clearly
originate in an atelier intimately aware of Floris’s
iconographie, stylistic, and practical innovations.
The existence of an oil sketch within Floris’s
milieu, even if not in his own hand, may further
reflect Floris’s contact with Venetian art and pos-
sibly even the early works of Tintoretto — himself a
prominent innovator of the oil sketch technique100
— although an exact point of contact remains unclear.
The genesis of Floris’s disegno in Lombard’s studio
marked a departure from the use and conception of
drawing in the Low Countries at mid-century. The
drawings considered here underscore Floris’s own
innovations in the multifaceted practice of disegno
as an aid to recollection, a medium of intellectual
inspiration, a means of artistic expression, and a
workshop implement. Floris’s approach to drawing
left a powerful but still largely unexplored héritage
for the générations of Antwerp artists up to and
including Rubens.101
93 HELD, J.: The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical
Catalogue. Princeton 1980, Vol. 1, p. 8; and SUTTON - WIE-
SEMAN 2004 (see in note 89), pp. 17-18.
94 VAN MANDER 1604 (see in note 31), fol. 242v; and MIE-
DEMA 1994 - 1999 (see in note 31), Vol. 4, pp. 43-44; VAN
DE VELDE 1975 (see in note 3), Vol. 1, pp. 110-111.
95 LOGAN, A.-M. - PLOMP, M. C.: Peter Paul Rubens: The
Drawings. New Haven — London 2005, p. 20, n. 83.
96 Two such examples are recorded, both in oil on paper: Dres-
den, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. No. 1967-52; 172 X 153 mm,
unmounted; another, sold, Colnaghi, New York, illustrated
in May-June 1998 catalogue, No. 8, cover ill.; oil on paper
laid down on canvas, 294 X 333 mm.
97 Oil on panel, 48.5 X 36.5 cm, signed FFF; Breslau, Schle-
sisches Museum der bildenden Künste, Inv. No. 210. See
ZUNTZ 1929 (see in note 3), pp. 89-90.
98 VAN DE VELDE 1975 (see in note 3), Vol. 1, pp. 68-69,
No. 2.
99 ZUNTZ 1929 (see in note 3), p. 89.
10('HELD 1980 (see in note 93), pp. 7-8.
101 See Ibidem, p. 6; and SUTTON - WIESEMAN 2004 (see in
note 89), pp. 110-113, Cat. No. 10, for the Head of a Negro of
same dimensions as many Floris head studies (oil on panel,
45.6 X 36.8 cm; Hyde Collection, Glenn Falls, New York).
61