Master of the Blue Wash
Design for a fanciful glass decanter, in the form of two seahorses, supported on a base of two dolphins with three putti holding a shell and an eagle attacking a serpent above
Auction Closed
January 25, 04:44 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 40,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Master of the Blue Wash
17th Century
Design for a fanciful glass decanter, in the form of two seahorses, supported on a base of two dolphins with three putti holding a shell and an eagle attacking a serpent above
Pen and brown ink and blue wash over black chalk, on two attached sheets;
inscribed in brown ink, on the spout: A and on the seahorse’s tail on the left: B
inscribed by the artist in brown ink, lower center: Il Piede deve essere di tre Delfini che formini un triangolo / Dietro al Cavallo Marino ne vuole essere un altro che / fara forma di Navicella / La bocca deve essere nel luogo segnato A / La coda segnato B. e del Scavallo Marino che va dall’altra / banda
334 by 225 mm; 13⅛ by 8⅞ in.
his sale, London, Mr. Hickman's Gallery, 25-28 February 1818, part of lot 289 ('The Works of Stefano della Bella'), for £32.10/-, to Holroyd(?);
Robert Holford,
thence by descent to his son, Sir George Holford,
by whose Executors sold, London, Sotheby's, 22 May 1928, part of lot 29B (as Stefano della Bella), for £145, to Castaguari;
sale, London, Christie's, A Collection of Drawings by Stefano della Bella, 18 March 1975, lot 84 (as Stefano della Bella);
with Il Gabinetto delle Stampe, Milan, by 1977;
Lodewijk Houthakker (1926-2008), Amsterdam (L.3893)
Munich and London, K. Bellinger, Die Zeichnung in Florenz, Drawings in Florence 1500-1650, 1991, cat. 31 (as Stefano della Bella)
P. Fuhring, Design into Art. Drawings for Architecture and Ornament. The Lodewijik Houthakker Collection, London 1989, vol. I, fig. 647, p. 384, cat. 647, p. 406 (as Stefano della Bella);
P.D. Massar, ‘Drawings after Prints by Stefano della Bella’, in Print Quarterly, vol. XIV, no. 3, September 1997, pp. 283-288, pl. 173 (as Unknown artist)
This elaborate design, apparently for a glass decanter, originates from an album of 241 sheets, formerly in the collection of Thomas Tomkins (1743-1816). Tomkins believed that all the drawings in his album were by Stefano della Bella, but more recently Detlef Heikamp proposed (see Literature) that the series of twenty or so designs for glass tableware of this type, mostly incorporating a blue wash unknown in Della Bella’s works, are by another hand, who has come to be known as ‘The Master of the Blue Wash.’ There are clear links between these drawings and prints by Della Bella, and Fuhring and others upheld the original attribution, but the consensus supports Heikamp.
In any case, the drawings are an excellent reflection of the splendour of 17th-century Florentine festivities, and of the role of the city’s leading artists in designing the paraphernalia required for these events. Whether or not the spectacularly complicated vessel seen here could ever have been made, in glass or any other material, remains unclear, but that in no way diminishes the quality and interest of the drawing.
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