DOI Artikel:
Kozieł, Andrzej: Rembrandt van Rijn and Michael Willmann, or a story of dispelling a certain myth
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14573#0172
158
ANDRZEJ KOZIEŁ
2. Josef Gregory after Michael Willmann, The Holy Family withyoung St. John the Baptist,
1795, etching, 156 x 184 mm, Prague, Narodni galerie. Photo after A. Kozieł, Rysunki
Michaela Willmanna (1630-1706), Wrocław 2000, fig. 224
possible to set engraving "prototypes" used by Willmann in his drawing exercises, and a similar formai
character of the rest of the works indicates that they were carried out after graphie models.
The artist's most elementary practice was studying single figures and scènes with a few persons on
separate subjects copied after a graphie model. The examples of this kind of practice are: The Holy Family
withyoung St. John the Baptist (fig. 2) following the central group from Martino Rota's etching after Titian's
painting The Rest on the Flight into Egypt3\ or The Bearing of the Cross - Christ and St. Veronica (fig. 3),
which was entirely copied from Giovanni Battista Franco's cooper-plate engraving The Bearing of the
Cross22. The young artist's next step was practice in which he tried to "improve" the main copied fragments
of "prototype" compositions by adding new figures or changing a composition concept of the model image.
This new attitude to a model may be found in the following drawings: Twelve-year-old Christ in the Tempie
(fig. 4), where the artist, having copied the main scène from Cornelis Cort's copper-plate engraving after
Michiel Coxie (with the same subject)33, reversed the situation of the key figure of the teaching Jesus, and
The Scène with Maie and Female Figures (fig. 5), where the artist "condensed" the figure group from the
first plan, copied from Georgio Ghisi's copper-plate engraving after Francesco Salviati's fresco Visitation34',
sztuki". Wczesne rysunki artysty w grafikach Jose/a Gregory'ego, "Biuletyn Historii Sztuki", 58 (1996), no. 3-4, pp. 285-306 (in
English: A. Kozieł, Michael Willmann s Way to 'the Heights of Arts ' and His Early Drawings, "Bulletin of The National Gallery
in Prague", VII—VIII [1997-1998], pp. 54-66). Only two works of Willmann's Amsterdam sketches have been preserved: The In-
credulity of Thomas (Prague, Pamâtnik Nârodniho Pisemnictvi, Grafickâ sbirka, inv. no. IK - 1324Л719) and Drawing Studies with
the Scène of Washing of the Feet, not mentioned by Gregory (Prague, Nârodni galerie, Grafickâ sbirka, inv. no. К 12017).
31 The lllustrated Bartsch, vol. 26: The Works of Marcantonio Raimondi and his School, ed. K. Oberhuber, New
York 1978, no. 21.
32 The lllustrated Bartsch, vol. 32: Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century School o f Fontainebleau, ed. H. Zerner, New
York 1979, no. 11—I.
33 J.C.J. В i e r e n s de H a a n, L'Œuvre gravé de Cornelis Cort, Graveur Hollandais 1533- 1578, Le Haye 1948, no. 53,
fig. 15.
34 The lllustrated Bartsch, vol. 31 : Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century, ed. S. В о о r s с h, J. S p i к e, New York 1986,
no. 1 I.
ANDRZEJ KOZIEŁ
2. Josef Gregory after Michael Willmann, The Holy Family withyoung St. John the Baptist,
1795, etching, 156 x 184 mm, Prague, Narodni galerie. Photo after A. Kozieł, Rysunki
Michaela Willmanna (1630-1706), Wrocław 2000, fig. 224
possible to set engraving "prototypes" used by Willmann in his drawing exercises, and a similar formai
character of the rest of the works indicates that they were carried out after graphie models.
The artist's most elementary practice was studying single figures and scènes with a few persons on
separate subjects copied after a graphie model. The examples of this kind of practice are: The Holy Family
withyoung St. John the Baptist (fig. 2) following the central group from Martino Rota's etching after Titian's
painting The Rest on the Flight into Egypt3\ or The Bearing of the Cross - Christ and St. Veronica (fig. 3),
which was entirely copied from Giovanni Battista Franco's cooper-plate engraving The Bearing of the
Cross22. The young artist's next step was practice in which he tried to "improve" the main copied fragments
of "prototype" compositions by adding new figures or changing a composition concept of the model image.
This new attitude to a model may be found in the following drawings: Twelve-year-old Christ in the Tempie
(fig. 4), where the artist, having copied the main scène from Cornelis Cort's copper-plate engraving after
Michiel Coxie (with the same subject)33, reversed the situation of the key figure of the teaching Jesus, and
The Scène with Maie and Female Figures (fig. 5), where the artist "condensed" the figure group from the
first plan, copied from Georgio Ghisi's copper-plate engraving after Francesco Salviati's fresco Visitation34',
sztuki". Wczesne rysunki artysty w grafikach Jose/a Gregory'ego, "Biuletyn Historii Sztuki", 58 (1996), no. 3-4, pp. 285-306 (in
English: A. Kozieł, Michael Willmann s Way to 'the Heights of Arts ' and His Early Drawings, "Bulletin of The National Gallery
in Prague", VII—VIII [1997-1998], pp. 54-66). Only two works of Willmann's Amsterdam sketches have been preserved: The In-
credulity of Thomas (Prague, Pamâtnik Nârodniho Pisemnictvi, Grafickâ sbirka, inv. no. IK - 1324Л719) and Drawing Studies with
the Scène of Washing of the Feet, not mentioned by Gregory (Prague, Nârodni galerie, Grafickâ sbirka, inv. no. К 12017).
31 The lllustrated Bartsch, vol. 26: The Works of Marcantonio Raimondi and his School, ed. K. Oberhuber, New
York 1978, no. 21.
32 The lllustrated Bartsch, vol. 32: Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century School o f Fontainebleau, ed. H. Zerner, New
York 1979, no. 11—I.
33 J.C.J. В i e r e n s de H a a n, L'Œuvre gravé de Cornelis Cort, Graveur Hollandais 1533- 1578, Le Haye 1948, no. 53,
fig. 15.
34 The lllustrated Bartsch, vol. 31 : Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century, ed. S. В о о r s с h, J. S p i к e, New York 1986,
no. 1 I.