HANS JOHANN ROTTENHAMMER THE ELDER | REST ON THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

Prof. Einar Perman, Stockholm

Laren, Singer Museum, Oude Tekeningen uit de Nederlanden, Verzameling Prof. E. Perman, Stockholm, 1962, no. 90 (as Erasmus Quellinus)

This extremely well preserved drawing, executed in the Venetian manner on blue paper, is clearly based on the grand chiaroscuro drawing by Paolo Veronese, now in the British Museum.(1) Although that drawing seems to have served as the basis for part of the composition of a more extensive composition, in Ottawa(2), the drawing was none the less probably made as an independent work of art.  The former attribution to Quellinus cannot be maintained, and the drawing seems instead to be stylistically consistent with certain works by the Munich-born Hans Johann Rottenhammer, who was in Italy from 1588 until 1606. For much of that time, he worked in Venice, marrying a local woman and establishing a successful studio in the city. Rottenhammer's rare drawings from his time in Venice are most strongly influenced by the work of Palma Giovane, but Veronese also had an impact on his drawing style. Comparable sheets by the artist include the fine drawing of The Hosts of Pharoah Destroyed in the Red Sea, formerly in the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth(3), and the Raising of Lazarus, still in the collection there.(4)  

1. Inv. 1854,0628.4; R. Cocke, Veronese's Drawings, London 1984, pp. 94-5, no. 28

2. Cocke, loc. cit., fig. 16

3. Sold, London, Sotheby's, 6 July 2010, lot 59; M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Northern European Drawings, Turin/London/Venice 2002, vol. IV, pp. 516-7, no. 1571

4.  Jaffé, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 519, no. 1573