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DOI Artikel:Boon, Karel G.: Some observations concerning an Antwerp family portrait by the Monogrammist "B"
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18820#0093
We will see that this attribution to the painter known through Van Mander as Bernard de Rij-
ckere has the advantage of bringing the picture back in its likeliest place of origin because the
connections with the French princely portraits of the Sehool of Oouet are entirely unconvin-
cing, a statement which Durrieu apparently had already made when he attacked Salomon Reinach
after his expose for the Academie des Inscriptions in 1919."
Some time ago I have pointed to a preparatory drawing in conneetion with the Warsaw picture
when I reviewed Lugt's catalogue of the early Netherlandish drawings in the Louvre.5 Lugt had
overlooked in his discussion of the large group of figurę studies and portraits of the monogrammist
"B" that one of these sheets contains three preliminary sketches for the composition.11 The two
on the verso of the sheet are probably first ideas because one of them shows the daughter of
Pharao sitting in a pose resembling Diana in Titian's famous pictures in Vienna and London,
while one of her attendants pulls the cradle with Moses out of the river (fig. 2). The drawing on
the recto however is closer to the picture, but it still lacks the two boys standing to the right.
Apparently they are introduced at a later moment. This side of the sheet has the monogram "B"
and the date 1562 (fig. 3). But not only these composition-sketches can be connected with the
picture. There are two others, one an elaborate drawing for the elder of the two boys standing
to the left7 (fig. 4) and the othcr for the woman (fig. 5)8 who offers the baby to, or receives it from
the daughter of Pharao. There is even among this group a drawing with various heads of women
wearing the same complicated head-dresses as in the picture.9 It might have been a preliminary
study, in particular for the woman in the foreground seen from the back whose hair-net in a Floris-
like style is very similar.
The relation between these drawings and the Warsaw picture points clearly to the fact that
we should situate this painter in another milieu than the French court. We learn a great deal about
his style and the wide rangę of his subjects through the forty-six drawings in the Louvre. One can
detect a slight change in his evolution from the earliest dated sheet of 1560 to the last dated one in
1577, representing a Resurrection of Christ which shows a slight influence of Maerten de Vos. On
the whole, however, these drawings are fairly dependent on the Floris atelier as appears from
a comparison with a closely related sketchbook of the same atelier, which has been published
years ago.10 The latter contains the same mixture of portraits and figurę studies in chalk and
composition-sketches in fine pen lines. Through the Floris atelier the painter might have had
some idea of Italian composition schemes.
Frits Lugt has summarized the various attributions given to the monogrammist "B" who is
responsible for the Louvre drawings.11 He did not, curiously enough, touch on the main problem
4. Mentioned by Reinach, op. cii., p. 257, note 1.
5. K.G. Boon, "Frits Lugt: Musće du Louvre. Inventaire des Ecoles du Nord, Maitres des Anciens Pays-Bas, nćs avant
1550", Master Drawings, IX, 1971, p. 59.
6. F. Lugt, Musee du Louyre. Invcntaire góneral des dessins des ecoles du Nord. Maitres des anciens Pays-Bas, nes avant 1550,
Paris, 1968, nr 482.
7. Ibidem, nr 519.
8. Ibidem, nr 515.
9. Ibidem, nr 514.
10. Carl van de Velde, Master Drawings, VII, 1969, p. 255 describcs this album, which was published by G. Dansaert and
P. Bautier in Annales de la Sociiti d'Archeologie de. Bruxelles, XXV, 1911, pp. 319 — 333 as now lost. On the first page
is a monogram D.G., which was identified as Damiaen van de Goudę, a pupil of Floris.
11. Lugt, op. cit., p. 106. Lugt apparently had no great confidence in Stechow's identifieation of the monogrammist "B"
with Joos de Beer; he considered the Flemish-French painter Georgc Boba, a more serious candidate, but he overlookcd
in this case that Boba's signed portrait in the Bibliotheque Nationale differs obviousIy from the portrait-drawings of
our Master B.
79
ckere has the advantage of bringing the picture back in its likeliest place of origin because the
connections with the French princely portraits of the Sehool of Oouet are entirely unconvin-
cing, a statement which Durrieu apparently had already made when he attacked Salomon Reinach
after his expose for the Academie des Inscriptions in 1919."
Some time ago I have pointed to a preparatory drawing in conneetion with the Warsaw picture
when I reviewed Lugt's catalogue of the early Netherlandish drawings in the Louvre.5 Lugt had
overlooked in his discussion of the large group of figurę studies and portraits of the monogrammist
"B" that one of these sheets contains three preliminary sketches for the composition.11 The two
on the verso of the sheet are probably first ideas because one of them shows the daughter of
Pharao sitting in a pose resembling Diana in Titian's famous pictures in Vienna and London,
while one of her attendants pulls the cradle with Moses out of the river (fig. 2). The drawing on
the recto however is closer to the picture, but it still lacks the two boys standing to the right.
Apparently they are introduced at a later moment. This side of the sheet has the monogram "B"
and the date 1562 (fig. 3). But not only these composition-sketches can be connected with the
picture. There are two others, one an elaborate drawing for the elder of the two boys standing
to the left7 (fig. 4) and the othcr for the woman (fig. 5)8 who offers the baby to, or receives it from
the daughter of Pharao. There is even among this group a drawing with various heads of women
wearing the same complicated head-dresses as in the picture.9 It might have been a preliminary
study, in particular for the woman in the foreground seen from the back whose hair-net in a Floris-
like style is very similar.
The relation between these drawings and the Warsaw picture points clearly to the fact that
we should situate this painter in another milieu than the French court. We learn a great deal about
his style and the wide rangę of his subjects through the forty-six drawings in the Louvre. One can
detect a slight change in his evolution from the earliest dated sheet of 1560 to the last dated one in
1577, representing a Resurrection of Christ which shows a slight influence of Maerten de Vos. On
the whole, however, these drawings are fairly dependent on the Floris atelier as appears from
a comparison with a closely related sketchbook of the same atelier, which has been published
years ago.10 The latter contains the same mixture of portraits and figurę studies in chalk and
composition-sketches in fine pen lines. Through the Floris atelier the painter might have had
some idea of Italian composition schemes.
Frits Lugt has summarized the various attributions given to the monogrammist "B" who is
responsible for the Louvre drawings.11 He did not, curiously enough, touch on the main problem
4. Mentioned by Reinach, op. cii., p. 257, note 1.
5. K.G. Boon, "Frits Lugt: Musće du Louvre. Inventaire des Ecoles du Nord, Maitres des Anciens Pays-Bas, nćs avant
1550", Master Drawings, IX, 1971, p. 59.
6. F. Lugt, Musee du Louyre. Invcntaire góneral des dessins des ecoles du Nord. Maitres des anciens Pays-Bas, nes avant 1550,
Paris, 1968, nr 482.
7. Ibidem, nr 519.
8. Ibidem, nr 515.
9. Ibidem, nr 514.
10. Carl van de Velde, Master Drawings, VII, 1969, p. 255 describcs this album, which was published by G. Dansaert and
P. Bautier in Annales de la Sociiti d'Archeologie de. Bruxelles, XXV, 1911, pp. 319 — 333 as now lost. On the first page
is a monogram D.G., which was identified as Damiaen van de Goudę, a pupil of Floris.
11. Lugt, op. cit., p. 106. Lugt apparently had no great confidence in Stechow's identifieation of the monogrammist "B"
with Joos de Beer; he considered the Flemish-French painter Georgc Boba, a more serious candidate, but he overlookcd
in this case that Boba's signed portrait in the Bibliotheque Nationale differs obviousIy from the portrait-drawings of
our Master B.
79