DOI issue:
Nr. 1
DOI article:Steinborn, Bożena: The triumph of David in the Silesian Museum: another copy of Lucas van Leyden's Work
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18817#0025
the composition from Milan shows thę scenę from a seemłngly closer point of view.. Thus it may
be assumed that there did exist at least two, very similar but none the less different original
prototype of Lucas van Leyden: tbe one which was copicd by the author on glass, and another
one which Saenredam saw when he made his engraving in 1600.
d. At the present state of iiwestigations the cmestion concerning the Negro girl holding a wreath
in the pictures published by Wolter and Hoogewerff (no. 5 and 9 in the table)40 cannot be answe-
red yet. The introduction of the Negro girl essentially changing the group of daughtcrs of Jeru-
salem could not have been the idea of any of the copyists as they tried to imitate faithfully the
model. If this hypothesis is true this would be the second argument, besides the technological
one that the pieture published by Wolter is the original.
e. Saenredam's engraving was done in 1600, that is at least 70 years later than the original
which is a fairly long period of time (fig. 7). In view of the popularity of the master from Leyden
among his contemporaries, who copied and imitated his works, it can be assumed that the
Triumph of David had been engraved already before Saenredam. One cannot exclude the pos-
sibility of finding other graphic copies of the discussed composition, which in multiplying the
missing links wauld explain the differences between the existing replicas and copies.
The career of the idea of the image of Triumph of David was caused by the fact that it sui-
ted perfectly the way of thinking and mentality of the people in this period of greater and
tmaller revolutions, the period favouring the rising up of wiły and strong heroes from the com-
mon people. Thinking of the immense part played by the graphic art at that time in conveying
creative conceptions the fact of making yet another copy of Lucas van Leyden's pieture in Cra-
nach's workshop should not surprise.
The Wrocław copy differs from all known repetitions of Lucas van Leyden's Triumph of Da-
vid in the disposition of the group of figures both in relation to the piane of the canvas and to
the beholder. Moved more to the bottom edge of the pieture it is regarded somewhat closer and
not so much from below, having more scmare-built figures - it seems to fili the field of the com-
position more than in other repetitions (in spite of sirnilar proportions of the pieture 5 : 4). The
vegetation is very unimpressive, not only is a distant view with a landscape behind David mis-
sing, but also such details as the abundance of grass in the foreground and the vegetation growing
on the city gate of Jeruzalem. The head of the elderly man at the right edge of the pieture disap-
peared and a head of a young man in a helmet took its place; the head painted very expressively
forces one to determine it as a portrait. The strokes of the brush indicate that the painter changed
the line of Michol's left shoulder and her headgear; the form of her left sleeve is unclear, may
be due to a repainting.
The linear defic'encies of the pattern,41 augmented by the failings of the copyisfs drawing
arc underlined by the destruction of the layer of glaze showing a crude unfinished form. The lack
of glaze affects in the pleats the relief gencrally so striking in the works of the master from Leyda
and so distinct in the pieture in Milan and the engraving by Saenredam. The lines on the tissues
which are faint at the present moment allow one only to guess that the folds on the Wrocław
pieture itself had their „3-rd dimension", although without repeating the pattern they were lit-
tle tectonic. The Saxon copyist has painted two lines of the score (on which the melody is only
roughly marked) on the sheet held by Michol. A similar staff appears on the pieture in the Reij-
erse collection and the engraving by Saenredam, on other pictures a four line staff appears. In
spite of the similar sheet with musie, the composition from the Hague collection does not seem
to be the model for the german copy; in the Hague composition the architecture of Jerusalem
40. Calberg, op. cit., pp. 33 — 34, is right in opposing Wolter's opinion that this figurę is represented as a wbite girl in
Sacnredain's print because of tcchnical difficulties.
41. I mean the too much simplified left hand of David and that of the lute player. Among others Frimmel, op. cit., p. 151,
writes that the details of the drawing are not always perfect in Lucas van Leyden's works.
19
be assumed that there did exist at least two, very similar but none the less different original
prototype of Lucas van Leyden: tbe one which was copicd by the author on glass, and another
one which Saenredam saw when he made his engraving in 1600.
d. At the present state of iiwestigations the cmestion concerning the Negro girl holding a wreath
in the pictures published by Wolter and Hoogewerff (no. 5 and 9 in the table)40 cannot be answe-
red yet. The introduction of the Negro girl essentially changing the group of daughtcrs of Jeru-
salem could not have been the idea of any of the copyists as they tried to imitate faithfully the
model. If this hypothesis is true this would be the second argument, besides the technological
one that the pieture published by Wolter is the original.
e. Saenredam's engraving was done in 1600, that is at least 70 years later than the original
which is a fairly long period of time (fig. 7). In view of the popularity of the master from Leyden
among his contemporaries, who copied and imitated his works, it can be assumed that the
Triumph of David had been engraved already before Saenredam. One cannot exclude the pos-
sibility of finding other graphic copies of the discussed composition, which in multiplying the
missing links wauld explain the differences between the existing replicas and copies.
The career of the idea of the image of Triumph of David was caused by the fact that it sui-
ted perfectly the way of thinking and mentality of the people in this period of greater and
tmaller revolutions, the period favouring the rising up of wiły and strong heroes from the com-
mon people. Thinking of the immense part played by the graphic art at that time in conveying
creative conceptions the fact of making yet another copy of Lucas van Leyden's pieture in Cra-
nach's workshop should not surprise.
The Wrocław copy differs from all known repetitions of Lucas van Leyden's Triumph of Da-
vid in the disposition of the group of figures both in relation to the piane of the canvas and to
the beholder. Moved more to the bottom edge of the pieture it is regarded somewhat closer and
not so much from below, having more scmare-built figures - it seems to fili the field of the com-
position more than in other repetitions (in spite of sirnilar proportions of the pieture 5 : 4). The
vegetation is very unimpressive, not only is a distant view with a landscape behind David mis-
sing, but also such details as the abundance of grass in the foreground and the vegetation growing
on the city gate of Jeruzalem. The head of the elderly man at the right edge of the pieture disap-
peared and a head of a young man in a helmet took its place; the head painted very expressively
forces one to determine it as a portrait. The strokes of the brush indicate that the painter changed
the line of Michol's left shoulder and her headgear; the form of her left sleeve is unclear, may
be due to a repainting.
The linear defic'encies of the pattern,41 augmented by the failings of the copyisfs drawing
arc underlined by the destruction of the layer of glaze showing a crude unfinished form. The lack
of glaze affects in the pleats the relief gencrally so striking in the works of the master from Leyda
and so distinct in the pieture in Milan and the engraving by Saenredam. The lines on the tissues
which are faint at the present moment allow one only to guess that the folds on the Wrocław
pieture itself had their „3-rd dimension", although without repeating the pattern they were lit-
tle tectonic. The Saxon copyist has painted two lines of the score (on which the melody is only
roughly marked) on the sheet held by Michol. A similar staff appears on the pieture in the Reij-
erse collection and the engraving by Saenredam, on other pictures a four line staff appears. In
spite of the similar sheet with musie, the composition from the Hague collection does not seem
to be the model for the german copy; in the Hague composition the architecture of Jerusalem
40. Calberg, op. cit., pp. 33 — 34, is right in opposing Wolter's opinion that this figurę is represented as a wbite girl in
Sacnredain's print because of tcchnical difficulties.
41. I mean the too much simplified left hand of David and that of the lute player. Among others Frimmel, op. cit., p. 151,
writes that the details of the drawing are not always perfect in Lucas van Leyden's works.
19