DOI Heft:
Część II / Part II. Neerlandica
DOI Artikel:Benesz, Hanna: Kuszenie świętego Antoniego z Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie i Pejzaż z legendą świętego Krzysztofa z Państwowego Muzeum Ermitażu w Petersburgu - próba interpretacji i atrybucji
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45360#0134
Hanna Benesz The Temptation of St Anthony from the National Museum in Warsaw...
133
described the Warsaw version as “cruder” (derbere Fassung).19 Nevertheless, he only knew it
from a pre-war photograph, because the painting had not been discovered by the time of that
publication. It is by no means a poorer version. The artist’s individual approach is evidenced
by a free preparatory drawing, in places visible with the naked eye, which, however, he did
not adhere to particularly strictly when rendering his final composition; departures from his
original ideas are visible in places.20 The definition of crudeness probably concerns the more
impish forms and vulgar behaviour of the demonic monsters.
The greatest merit of de Cock / Master J. Kock, this enigmatic but extremely interesting
artist, was his contribution to a remarkable development of landscape painting. Friedländer
considered his artistic output as anticipating the landscapes of Pieter Bruegel.21 Jan Wellens
de Cock was the first to use the horizontal format more apt for depicting panoramas of nature
and for mastering the illusion of depth. The figures were always welded with the landscape; the
artist was exceptionally consistent in his presentation of all animate and inanimate forms of
nature as one.22 The main landmark of such a vision of landscape was the artist’s groundbreak-
ing woodcut from 1522. Filedt Kok attributes the invention ofyet another woodcut composition
to Master J. Kock, placing it in his Antwerp period, ca. 1525. The Landscape with St John on
Patmos, although executed with a harder line of another printmaker, presents an even richer
panorama of the landscape than the woodcut of 1522.23 The depth of the created space with a
high horizon, the type of edifices and monumental trees with characteristic foliage, a mon-
ster figure of the devil who tries to steal the inkstand from St John, all belong indisputably to
the repertoire of this master. When speaking of the landscape development in Antwerp art,
especially in the context of the de Cock I Master J. Kock group, one cannot omit a drawing
from the Berlin sketchbook once published by Julius Held.24 It shows the Road to Calvary with
a procession of numerous small figures represented against the background of a panorama
of Jerusalem. Characteristic shapes of the castles and gate towers in this drawing, dated ca.
1535, are found in paintings connected with de Cock / Master J. Kock: in the background of
the Crucifixion in the small Amsterdam triptych and in both versions of The Temptation.25
A drawing repeating only the architecture part from the Road to Calvary, also present in the
same sketchbook, made some scholars believe that these and similar sketches were to serve
as models in the early sixteenth-century Antwerp workshops.26 However - as was already
stressed by Held - the original model for the Road to Calvary certainly must have been close
to the pictorial means used by Jan de Cock. Not only the elements of the architecture, but also
the general atmosphere of the scene, the throng of figures moving from right to left, a motif of
19 Unverfehrt, Hieronymus Bosch..., op. cit., p. 270, cat. no. 75, fig. 128.
20 Technological information was given by Dr Elżbieta Pilecka-Pietrusińska (Conservation Workshop of
Sculpture and Painting on Wooden Supports) who conducted the conservation of the painting.
21 Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, op. cit., p. 39: “As an observer of the living powers of nature,
picturesquely rooted and tangled, this master stands head and shoulders above his generation. Like Patenier, he
chose Bosch as his point of departure, but then followed the road that led to Pieter Bruegel.”
22 Unverfehrt, Hieronymus Bosch..., op. cit., pp. 178,182.
23 Lucas van Leyden en de Renaissance, op. cit., pp. 224-5,cat-no-
24 Julius Held, “Notizen zu einem'niederländischen Skizzenbuch in Berlin,” Oud Holland, 5 o (1933), p. 280
and fig. i, pp. 274-5. The discussed sketchbook is 79C 2 from the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin.
25 Filedt Kok mentions also such a tower in the Carrying of the Cross by Herri met de Bles from ca. 1535
in Princeton (Lucas van Leyden en de Renaissance, op. cit., p. 228, note 4).
26 Ibid., p . 229, cat. no. 24.
133
described the Warsaw version as “cruder” (derbere Fassung).19 Nevertheless, he only knew it
from a pre-war photograph, because the painting had not been discovered by the time of that
publication. It is by no means a poorer version. The artist’s individual approach is evidenced
by a free preparatory drawing, in places visible with the naked eye, which, however, he did
not adhere to particularly strictly when rendering his final composition; departures from his
original ideas are visible in places.20 The definition of crudeness probably concerns the more
impish forms and vulgar behaviour of the demonic monsters.
The greatest merit of de Cock / Master J. Kock, this enigmatic but extremely interesting
artist, was his contribution to a remarkable development of landscape painting. Friedländer
considered his artistic output as anticipating the landscapes of Pieter Bruegel.21 Jan Wellens
de Cock was the first to use the horizontal format more apt for depicting panoramas of nature
and for mastering the illusion of depth. The figures were always welded with the landscape; the
artist was exceptionally consistent in his presentation of all animate and inanimate forms of
nature as one.22 The main landmark of such a vision of landscape was the artist’s groundbreak-
ing woodcut from 1522. Filedt Kok attributes the invention ofyet another woodcut composition
to Master J. Kock, placing it in his Antwerp period, ca. 1525. The Landscape with St John on
Patmos, although executed with a harder line of another printmaker, presents an even richer
panorama of the landscape than the woodcut of 1522.23 The depth of the created space with a
high horizon, the type of edifices and monumental trees with characteristic foliage, a mon-
ster figure of the devil who tries to steal the inkstand from St John, all belong indisputably to
the repertoire of this master. When speaking of the landscape development in Antwerp art,
especially in the context of the de Cock I Master J. Kock group, one cannot omit a drawing
from the Berlin sketchbook once published by Julius Held.24 It shows the Road to Calvary with
a procession of numerous small figures represented against the background of a panorama
of Jerusalem. Characteristic shapes of the castles and gate towers in this drawing, dated ca.
1535, are found in paintings connected with de Cock / Master J. Kock: in the background of
the Crucifixion in the small Amsterdam triptych and in both versions of The Temptation.25
A drawing repeating only the architecture part from the Road to Calvary, also present in the
same sketchbook, made some scholars believe that these and similar sketches were to serve
as models in the early sixteenth-century Antwerp workshops.26 However - as was already
stressed by Held - the original model for the Road to Calvary certainly must have been close
to the pictorial means used by Jan de Cock. Not only the elements of the architecture, but also
the general atmosphere of the scene, the throng of figures moving from right to left, a motif of
19 Unverfehrt, Hieronymus Bosch..., op. cit., p. 270, cat. no. 75, fig. 128.
20 Technological information was given by Dr Elżbieta Pilecka-Pietrusińska (Conservation Workshop of
Sculpture and Painting on Wooden Supports) who conducted the conservation of the painting.
21 Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, op. cit., p. 39: “As an observer of the living powers of nature,
picturesquely rooted and tangled, this master stands head and shoulders above his generation. Like Patenier, he
chose Bosch as his point of departure, but then followed the road that led to Pieter Bruegel.”
22 Unverfehrt, Hieronymus Bosch..., op. cit., pp. 178,182.
23 Lucas van Leyden en de Renaissance, op. cit., pp. 224-5,cat-no-
24 Julius Held, “Notizen zu einem'niederländischen Skizzenbuch in Berlin,” Oud Holland, 5 o (1933), p. 280
and fig. i, pp. 274-5. The discussed sketchbook is 79C 2 from the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin.
25 Filedt Kok mentions also such a tower in the Carrying of the Cross by Herri met de Bles from ca. 1535
in Princeton (Lucas van Leyden en de Renaissance, op. cit., p. 228, note 4).
26 Ibid., p . 229, cat. no. 24.