HENDRICK GOLTZIUS
1558-1617P 9 Bust of an Angel
Black chalk, oiled black chalk, and white chalk height-
ening; H: 55.6 cm (2i^7 /sin.); W: 39.7 cm (i5^5 /8Ín.)
86.GB.593
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at right, signed and
dated HG/A°: 1609 in black chalk; (verso) indeciphera-
ble, partially trimmed seventeenth-century (?) inscrip-
tion, inscribed N°.2? in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Denmark; private col-
lection, Malmô, Sweden; private collection, London; art
market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. K.J. Reznicek, "A Survey of Recent
Discoveries and of Bibliography Concerning Dutch Art
1500-1600," in G. Cavalli-Bjôrkman, éd., Netherlandish
Mannerism: Papers Given at a Symposium in Nationalmu-
seum Stockholm, September 21-22, 1984, Nationalmusei
Skriftserie, n. s. 4 (Stockholm, 1985), pp. 10-11; X.
Egorova, "A Painting by Hendrick Goltzius at the Push-
kin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow," Burlington Maga-
zine 131, no. 1030 (January 1989), pp. 24-27.
THIS MONUMENTAL ANGELIC HEAD IS AMONG THE
most important recent additions to the drawn oeuvre of
Goltzius (Reznicek 1985). The grand scale of the image
as well as the broad handling of the chalk are character-
istic of his tendency to explore painterly concerns in his
later drawings, a tendency that coincided with his aban-
donment of engraving in favor of painting after 1600. As
was recognized by Egorova (1989, p. 24), the figure in
the drawing is close to the angel of the Annunciation in
Goltzius's painting in the Pushkin Museum, which, like
the drawing, is signed and dated 1609.
The study does not, however, appear to have been
made in preparation for the painting. Instead, like other
large, imaginary heads and bust-length figures of this pe
riod, such as Female Torso (Haarlem, Teyler's Stichting,
Mappe N, nr. 64) and Head of a Siren (National Gallery
of Art inv. 1986.92. i), it seems to have been made as a
finished work of art. The chalk style of the Washington
Siren corresponds closely to that of the present drawing,
as does its date of 1609, its dimensions (52.4 by 38 cen
timeters), and the presence of a central fold in the sam
position. Moreover both have Scandinavian prove
nances.^1 All of this suggests that the drawings were onc
in the same collection and indeed might have been mad
as a pair.
- e - e e
i. L. Hendrix appreciates the assistance of L. Bier with the
provenance of the Washington drawing, which formerly be-
longed to her and the late H. Bier.232 DUTCH SCHOOL • GOLTZIUS