Fortune Distributing her Gifts

1590

Jan Muller, after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem

Associated Names
Jan Muller

Artist, Netherlandish, 1571 - 1628

Herman Jansz Muller

Publisher, Netherlandish, c. 1540 - 1617

Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem

Artist After, Dutch, 1562 - 1638

This is a drawing of multiple nude figures surrounding a central figure on a pedestal. The figures are muscular and contorted in various poses. In the center, a figure stands raised on the pedestal, reaching an arm upwards. The other figures are engaged in dramatic gestures, some pointing towards the central figure while others avert their gaze or appear in action or struggle. Strong contrasts between light and shadow highlight the muscularity and intensity of each figure's form. The scene conveys an atmosphere of a grand narrative or mythological theme.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 50.6 × 91.1 cm (19 15/16 × 35 7/8 in.) (trimmed to plate mark)

  • Accession Number

    2012.92.572

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 33, State iii/v

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Horace Walpole; his sale, June 13, 1842, lot 1216.[1] (Christie's London, June 29, 1978, lot 16); (via P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London); Ruth Kainen, Washington, D.C.; Gift to NGA, 2012.
[1] The Christie's sale catalogue in which the present print appears notes that the mannerist prints in the sale came from a dissembled portfolio once belonging to Walpole.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2013

  • Northern Mannerist Prints from the Kainen Collection, NGA, 2013 - 2014.

Bibliography

1949

  • Hollstein, F.W.H. et al. Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700. Vols. I-XV, XVIII, XIX. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger: no. 71, ii/iv

1993

  • The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (The Muller Dynasty, Jan Piet Filedt Kok, author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 33, iii/v

Inscriptions

in image, at left: Cornelius Corneliades Harlemen / inuenit et pinxit; in image, at right: Johannes Mullerus Amsterod: sculpsit.; below image: Me rerum Dominam celebrant, Divanque potentem / Mortales faciunt, et super astra locant. / Munifica dicor nunc hos extollere dextra, / Nunc illos varijs exagitare malis. / Praecipiti videor, rapidaeque insistere sphaerae, / Quòd mihi non constem lubrica, simque vaga. / Praevelant oculos, rectum discernere bruta / Quod nequeam: justis dura, benigna malis. / Occiput est calvum, propendent fronte capilli, / Obvia quòd possim, non fugitiva, capi. / At cum provideat divina potentia rebus, / Nomen inane mihi, non mihi numen adest.; below image, at right: Harman Muller excud:; in image, at top left: Prudentissimis Reip. Harlemensis Moderatoribus, / Adraino Berckenrodio, Guilielmo Dei manno, / Thoma Thomae f., et Gerardo Guilielmio, Dominis / suis plurimum observandis, Cornelius Corneliades / Pictor, gratus ciuis dedicabat, An. M. D. XC.

Wikidata ID

Q76557209

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