Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus

Corsus was one of the forty horses in the famous stable of Don Juan of Austria (1547-1578).  Don Juan, the illegitimate brother of Philip II of Spain, was Governor of the Netherlands for the last two years of his life.  In 1576, the year of his appointment, he commissioned Stradanus to create a series of portraits of his horses, engravings of which were produced over the following three years.  The first fourteen prints were executed by Hieronymus Wierix, but after the artist was forced to flee Antwerp in the October of 1578, the project was completed by Adriaen Colleart and Hendrick Goltzius.  The set was published by Philips Galle, fronted by an elaborate title page, dedication and portrait of Stradanus.¹

The drawings were referred to by Raffaello Borghini in Il Riposo, published in Florence in 1584, who stated that they represent 'tutte le sorte di cavalli d'ogni provincia'.  The present sheet was one of the fifteen engraved, in reverse, by Goltzius (fig. 1).²  Previously unknown, it is only the ninth preparatory drawing from the series to come to light.  Seven are in museum collections and one was recently sold in New York.³ 

1. A. Baroni Vannucci, Jan van der Straet detto Giovanni Stradano, flandrus pictor et inventor, Milan 1997, pp. 366-7, cat. no. 692
2. The Illustrated Bartsch, Hendrick Goltzius, no. 3 (commentary), New York 1982, p. 319, no. 0301
3. The Uffizi, Florence; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Musée des Beaux Arts, Nancy; Prentenkabinet der Rijksmuseum, Leiden; Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome; Christie's, 24 January 2008, lot 17