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Lot Essay
Now best known for his Schilderboeck, which included biographies of 15th- and 16th-Century Netherlandish artists, Karel van Mander was born into a wealthy family in Meulebeke in Flanders. His humanist education included the study of poetry and painting, first with Lucas de Heere (circa 1534-1584) and then with Pieter Vlerick (1539-1581), and he showed a marked talent as a draughtsman, though only forty of his drawings survive today. At the age of 25 he set off on a study tour of Italy that would last four years, taking him to Florence, Terni and Rome. There, in Rome, he met Bartholomeus Spranger (1546-1611), court painter to the Emperor Rudolf II, who would have a profound impact on van Mander's artistic style and who invited van Mander to return to Vienna with him. When he eventually returned to the Netherlands, van Mander brought some of Spranger's drawings with him. Settling in Haarlem, he became friends with Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) and Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (1562-1638) who, like van Mander, were fascinated by the elegantly contorted figures and virtuoso poses which they saw in Spranger's art. Taking inspiration from his drawings, they developed a homogenous Mannerist artistic style which was disseminated among other artists in their circle through a drawing school, now known as the Haarlem Academy.
The Academy style was at its height between 1584 and 1592, and embraced such artists as Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629), Gerrit Pietersz. Sweelink (1566–1612), Jacob Matham (1571-1631), Jan Muller (1571-1628), Abraham Bloemaert (1564/66-1651) and the sculptor Adrien de Vries (circa 1556–1626). Although we know that figure studies were made during this period, both from life ('naar het leven') and from the imagination ('uit de geest'), only nine survive, including the present drawing and a very comparable study of A Female Nude by van Mander in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Fig. 1). None of those nine studies predates 1588 and the present drawing, along with the Getty nude, must be among the earliest examples. Van Thiel (1999, op. cit., p. 73) explains that, although the Getty Female Nude has usually been dated to circa 1590, it should be regarded as earlier; and Leesberg (op. cit.) has observed that the kind of flamboyant monogram which appears on the present drawing was first used in 1588. It is likely that the present drawing was made from the imagination rather than directly from a model, and it shows the marked influence of Spranger's style: Miedema (1973, op. cit.) especially notes the 'douwkens' or spots of ink used to delineate the figure's muscles. So named from the Dutch 'duwen', meaning to push or press, this is a technique which also appears in drawings by Goltzius and Cornelis van Haarlem at this period, and ultimately derives from Spranger's own study of works by the Zuccari in Italy. It was probably drawn as a showpiece: a virtuoso demonstration of van Mander's skill at depicting the human figure, showing the standing man (seen from behind) in the same elegant contrapposto that defines the female nude (seen from the front) at the Getty. The presence of van Mander's monogram on such a large scale, added with a noticeable flourish and utterly disproportionate to the image itself, suggests that he was particularly proud of this drawing and wished it to be considered as a work of art in its own right.
The Academy style was at its height between 1584 and 1592, and embraced such artists as Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629), Gerrit Pietersz. Sweelink (1566–1612), Jacob Matham (1571-1631), Jan Muller (1571-1628), Abraham Bloemaert (1564/66-1651) and the sculptor Adrien de Vries (circa 1556–1626). Although we know that figure studies were made during this period, both from life ('naar het leven') and from the imagination ('uit de geest'), only nine survive, including the present drawing and a very comparable study of A Female Nude by van Mander in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Fig. 1). None of those nine studies predates 1588 and the present drawing, along with the Getty nude, must be among the earliest examples. Van Thiel (1999, op. cit., p. 73) explains that, although the Getty Female Nude has usually been dated to circa 1590, it should be regarded as earlier; and Leesberg (op. cit.) has observed that the kind of flamboyant monogram which appears on the present drawing was first used in 1588. It is likely that the present drawing was made from the imagination rather than directly from a model, and it shows the marked influence of Spranger's style: Miedema (1973, op. cit.) especially notes the 'douwkens' or spots of ink used to delineate the figure's muscles. So named from the Dutch 'duwen', meaning to push or press, this is a technique which also appears in drawings by Goltzius and Cornelis van Haarlem at this period, and ultimately derives from Spranger's own study of works by the Zuccari in Italy. It was probably drawn as a showpiece: a virtuoso demonstration of van Mander's skill at depicting the human figure, showing the standing man (seen from behind) in the same elegant contrapposto that defines the female nude (seen from the front) at the Getty. The presence of van Mander's monogram on such a large scale, added with a noticeable flourish and utterly disproportionate to the image itself, suggests that he was particularly proud of this drawing and wished it to be considered as a work of art in its own right.