ANTHONY VAN DYCK
86 The Entombment*
Partial Study of the
Entombment"
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown and reddish
wash, red and blue chalk, and white gouache heightening
(recto); black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brown wash
(verso), sheet folded twice vertically and six times hori-
zontally; H: 25.4 cm (loin.); W: 21.8 cm (8^5 /s in.)
85.00.97
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom right
corner, collection mark of N. A. Flinck (L. 959); (verso)
inscribed N° 29 in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: N. A. Flinck, Rotterdam; William, sec-
ond duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth; by descent to the
current duke (sale, Christie's, London, July 3, 1984, lot
57); art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Seventeenth Century Art in Europe, Royal
Academy of Arts, London, 1938, no. 585 (catalogue of
drawings by A. E. Popham et al.). Tekeningen van Jan van
Eyck tot Rubens, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen,
Rotterdam, December 1948-February 1949, no. 88, and
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, March-April 1949, no.
no (catalogue by J. C. Ebbinge Wubben). Drawings by
Old Masters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1953, no.
290 (catalogueby K. T. Parker andj. Byam Shaw). Flem-
ish Art 1300-1700, Royal Academy of Arts, London, De-
cember 1953-March 1954 , no. 488 (catalogue of draw-
ings by K. T. Parker and J. Byam Shaw). Paintings and
Drawings by Van Dyck, Nottingham University Art Gal-
lery, February-March 1960, no. 38 (catalogue by O.
Millar). Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth, National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and other institu-
tions, 1962-1963, no. 78 (catalogue by A. E. Popham).
Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth: A Loan Exhibition
from the Devonshire Collection, Royal Academy of Arts,
London, July-August 1969, no. 78 (catalogue by A. E.
Popham). Old Master Drawings from Chatsworth, Na-
tional Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1975, no. 74. Old
Master Drawings: A Loan from the Collection of the Duke of
Devonshire, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, April-July 1977,
no. 30. Van Dyck as a Religious Artist, Art Museum,
Princeton, April-May 1979, no. 6 (catalogue by J. R.
Martin and G. Feigenbaum). The Young van Dyck, Na-
tional Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1980, no. 19 (cata-
logue by A. McNairn).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Vasari Society for the Reproduction of
Draw ings by Old Masters, istser. (London, 1910), vol. 6,
no. 19; H. Leporini, Die Kunstlerzeichnung (Berlin,
1928), p. 242; H. Vey, Van-Dyck-Studien (Cologne,
!955)» PP- 36-38; J. G. van Gelder, "Van Dycks kruis-
draging in de St.-Pauluskerk te Antwerpen," Bulletin
Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts 10 (1961), pp. 5, 7; I. Mos-
kowitz, Great Drawings of All Time (New York, 1962),
vol. 2, no. 543; H. Vey, Die Zeichnungen Anton van Dycks
(Brussels, 1962), vol. i, pp. 76, no. 4; 78, under no. 6;
C. T. Eisler, Flemish and Dutch Drawings From the 15th to
the i8th Century (New York, 1963), pi. 41; I. Q. van Reg-
teren Altena and P. W. Ward-Jackson, Drawings from the
Teyler Museum, Haarlem, exh. cat., Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, 1970, p. 23, under no. 20.THE RECTO AND VERSO^1 OF THIS SHEET BOTH CONTAIN
studies of the Entombment; they are related to other draw-
ings of this theme by van Dyck which appear to date
from around 1617-1620. The others, also drawn on both
recto and verso, are in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
(copy of a lost drawing), and the Teylers Stichting, Haar-
lem (inv. 1597, 0*15; Vey 1962, nos. 5, 6). Vey (1962, p.
78 ) has argued that all of these drawings were not nec-
essarily preparatory to a painting, but van Gelder (1961,
p. 8) has expressed a contrary view and is likely to be cor-
rect. He has pointed out that the figure of the Virgin on
the right of the recto appears again in one of van Dyck's
drawings (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, inv. 6334; van
Gelder 1961, p. 6, fig. 2) for the Christ Carrying the Cross
(Antwerp, Sint-Pauluskerk), thereby indicating the in-
termingling of van Dyck's ideas for the various religious
compositions he was developing at that moment. Fur-
thermore, the monumental conception of the design on
the Museum's recto speaks for it being a study for a paint-
ing. In the broad handling of wash, variety of technique,
and relief-like composition of principal figures, it closely
parallels the study for Christ Carrying the Cross (Provi-192 FLEMISH SCHOOL • VAN DYCK