Old Master and British Works on Paper

Old Master and British Works on Paper

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 171. Six studies for The Martyrs' Mirror: A) The Torture of Geleijn the shoemaker, 1572 B) The Martyrdom of Anneken Heyndricks, 1571 C) The Burial alive of Anneke van den Hove, Brussels, 1597 D) Adriaen Wens at the place of execution of his mother E) 180 people burned under the name of Albigois as heretics, 1210 F) Pieter Pietersz. Bekjen being led to the stake.

Jan Luyken

Six studies for The Martyrs' Mirror: A) The Torture of Geleijn the shoemaker, 1572 B) The Martyrdom of Anneken Heyndricks, 1571 C) The Burial alive of Anneke van den Hove, Brussels, 1597 D) Adriaen Wens at the place of execution of his mother E) 180 people burned under the name of Albigois as heretics, 1210 F) Pieter Pietersz. Bekjen being led to the stake

Lot Closed

January 26, 08:37 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Jan Luyken

Amsterdam 1649 - 1712

Six studies for The Martyrs' Mirror:

A) The Torture of Geleijn the shoemaker, 1572

B) The Martyrdom of Anneken Heyndricks, 1571

C) The Burial alive of Anneke van den Hove, Brussels, 1597

D) Adriaen Wens at the place of execution of his mother

E) 180 people burned under the name of Albigois as heretics, 1210

F) Pieter Pietersz. Bekjen being led to the stake


All pen and brown ink and brown and gray wash, within brown ink framing lines;

the backing sheet of each work inscribed in brown ink with the biographical details of the artist, the subject depicted and an old attribution: Jan Luyken

Each circa 105 by 130 mm; 4⅛ by 5⅛ in.

C.P. van Eeghen, The Hague (bears his mark, verso, not in Lugt)

Jan Luyken created these six drawings as preparatory studies for corresponding etchings, in reverse, that illustrated the 1685 edition of TheMartyrs' Mirror. This book describes the violent fate suffered by many Anabaptists in the Low Countries from the 13th to the 16th Centuries – subject matter with particular resonance for Luyken, following his conversion to Anabaptism at the age of 26.


Other drawings for the same project, executed in a comparable combination of media and of similar dimensions, include depictions of Jan Smit hung by one leg on the gallows, on the Grote Markt in Haarlem, 1572 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum)1 and The martyr Antonius Ysbaarts, burned on the stake, 1573, in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.2


1. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T-1903-A-4768A

2. Frankfurt-am-Main, Städel Museum, Graphische Sammlung, inv. no. 3276