Dutch School, 17th Century

This elegantly drawn study after the celebrated antique statue, the Apollo Belvedere, fits within a long and distinguished tradition of drawings made by Dutch and Flemish artists visiting Italy, recording the treasures that they saw there.  From the pioneering visit of Maarten van Heemskerck, in 1532-6, until at least the middle of the 19th century, there was a steady flow of northern artists travelling south, to see, study and learn from the achievements of their forebears, both classical and renaissance.

Stylistically, this accomplished drawing is clearly indebted to the superb, large drawings of antique sculptures made on the same scale and in the same combination of media by Hendrick Goltzius, during his visit of 1590-91 (his drawing of the Apollo Belvedere is now in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem), but also reflects, in the more careful approach to line, the work of the later Antwerp artist, Peter van Lint (1609-1690), who made a number of drawings after antique and renaissance works in Italy in the 1630s. Indeed, three fine drawings after the Farnese Hercules, all signed by Van Lint and dated 1639, are in many ways rather comparable to present work.¹

1. Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland; Paris, Fondation Custodia; and sold, London, Sotheby's, 5 July 2006, lot 102