- 89
Pieter Jansz. Quast
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
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Description
- Pieter Jansz. Quast
- The Mocking of the Spaniard
- Signed and dated: PQuast 1642
- Black chalk on vellum
- 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches
Provenance
Lionel Lucas (L.1733a);
Charles Lucas, his sale, London, Christie's, 9 December 1949, part of lot 59 (55 gns. to Eisemann);
with P & D Colnaghi & Co., London, 1950 (Old Master Drawings, no. 83);
sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 18 November 1985, lot 72;
sale, New York, Sotheby's, 14 January 1992, lot 136
Charles Lucas, his sale, London, Christie's, 9 December 1949, part of lot 59 (55 gns. to Eisemann);
with P & D Colnaghi & Co., London, 1950 (Old Master Drawings, no. 83);
sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 18 November 1985, lot 72;
sale, New York, Sotheby's, 14 January 1992, lot 136
Literature
B.A. Stanton-Hirst, 'Pieter Quast and the Theatre', Oud Holland, 96, 1982, p. 232, note 27
Catalogue Note
Quast's drawings frequently incorporate characters from popular theatre, combined with elements of political satire. The central figure here, in his ridiculous, outsize millstone collar, is the Spanish 'Capitano', an object of ridicule and hate in both Italian and Dutch popular theatre. In 1617 the Dutch playwright G.A. Bredero lampooned the character, and by extension the numerous immigrants from the southern, Spanish Netherlands who had settled in Amsterdam, in a comedy entitled 'De Spaanschen Brabander'. This image of the 'Capitano' mocked by a variety of grotesque figures is one of many produced by Dutch artists over the following decades.