Lot 69
  • 69

Nicolas Poussin

Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Nicolas Poussin
  • Tents, standards, shields, helmets, loaded carts and other objects, after Trajan's Column
  • Pen and brown ink and wash;
    bears old attribution in pen and brown ink, lower right recto: poussin; inscribed in pen and brown ink, verso: 600 pour demy arma?

Provenance

Maurice Marignane (L.1872),
thence by descent to his son, Hubert Marignane (bears his mark, not in Lugt);
sale, Geneva, Nicolas Rauch, 13-15 June 1960, lot 312;
Private Collection

Literature

W. Friedländer and A. Blunt, The Drawings of Nicolas Poussin, Catalogue Raisonné, London 1974, vol. V, p. 37, no. 332, reproduced p. 259, fig. 332;
P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 1994, vol. I, pp. 374-375, no. 196, reproduced

Condition

Hinged at the top to a modern mount. The paper has quite uniformly discolored to a beige, two strip of a darker tint on the left and right margin. Some slight scattered foxing. Three small losses and a tear restored from the back with old pieces of paper. The ink has somewhat sunk due to the paper discoloration. Some abrasions and a darker stain at the bottom to the left and two circular stains, one brown at the top on a vertical shield, and a smaller but darker one to the right on the tents.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Anthony Blunt, who knew this drawing from the Marignane collection, identified and published it as one of a series of copies by Poussin after Villamena’s engravings for Chacon’s Historia utriusque belli Dacici a Traiano Caesare gesti, ex simulachris quae in columna eiusdem Romae visuntur collecta… (Rome 1576).  Blunt has convincingly argued that even when Poussin was in Rome, he copied Antique motifs more from engravings, or from drawings that he studied in the collection of his friend Cassiano dal Pozzo, than from the original objects.Rosenberg and Prat have dated this drawing, along with the seven other surviving sheets by Poussin in which he copies from Chacon’s Historia, to circa 1635.  These other drawings are all now in public collections, mostly in France.2 

Chacon’s Historia is the first publication to include a full series of illustrations of the sculpted reliefs on the famous triumphal column, erected by the Roman senate in AD 113 to celebrate the victories of the Emperor Trajan over the Dacians.  Alfonso Chacón, a Spanish Dominican scholar in Rome, dedicated his book to King Philip II of Spain.  The epic narrative of Trajan's column, which includes some 2,500 figures, obviously attracted and stimulated Poussin’s intellectual curiosity.  A veritable encyclopedia of antiquarian details, the reliefs constitute a unique and vital repository of reliable images and narrative compositions, representing every aspect of Roman military life. 

The mise en page of Poussin's drawings of this type is always fascinating and original.  Though the sheets may have been conceived primarily as records, for the artist's subsequent use as needed, the arrangement of the different elements on the page is always characteristically harmonious, and the sheets have a totally individual aesthetic quality.  Poussin never made a slavish copy of a single engraved plate, but took details from different prints and combined them on the same page, arranging them to his own taste.  In this drawing, many of the elements are found in Villamena’s plate 112, but Poussin has also incorporated details from no fewer than five other engravings from Chacon’s Historia.3

1 W. Friedländer and A. Blunt, op. cit., vol. V, p. 25; P. Rosenberg and L-A. Prat, op. cit., vol. I, pp. XXI-XXII

2
Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux Arts, inv. no. D. 46.2223; Chantilly, Musée Condé, inv. nos. AI 206/NI 249 and AI 205/NI 249; Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. R.F. 1167; Paris, École nationale supériere des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 1433; Turin, Biblioteca Reale, inv. no. 16307b; New York, Metropolitan Museum, 2006.393,28; see Rosenberg/Prat, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 370-385, nos. 194-201, all reproduced

3
ibid., p. 374