Sebastien Vrancx

Dr. Arthur Feldmann (1877-1941), Brno;

Looted by the Gestapo from the Feldmann villa in Brno, 15 March 1939;

Moravian Provincial Museum, Brno (their mark, and inventory no. 3154);

Moravská galerie, Brno;

Restituted to the heirs of Dr. Arthur Feldmann in 2003;

By whom sold, Sotheby's London, 6 July 2005, lot 34;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

Brno, Moravská Galerie, Nizozemská Kresba 16.-18. století ze sbírek Moravské Galerie v Brne, 1987, p.18, no.38

L. Wood Ruby, 'Sebastiaen Vrancx as Illustrator of Virgil's Aeneid,' Master Drawings, vol. XXVIII, no. 1, 1990, pp. 54, 70, 71 (note 9)

This is one of a series of at least sixty-five drawings illustrating Virgil's epic, which were first attributed to Vrancx by Ruth Muthmann and Andrew Robison in 1983, and are fully discussed by Louisa Wood Ruby (loc. cit.). It was Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann who recognized in 1985 that the present drawing, which illustrates an episode in Book XI of the Aeneid, also belongs to this series. Wood Ruby dates these drawings circa 1615, and points out not only that they constitute the most extensive series of Aeneid illustrations since Sebastian Brandt's of 1502, but also that the rhymed Dutch paraphrasing of Virgil's text that appears below the images does not correspond with any published translation of the original, and may indeed represent Vrancx's own attempt at a new translation.