Seven Famous Figures from Ancient History

c. 1442

Barthélemy van Eyck

Associated Names
Barthélemy van Eyck

Artist, Netherlandish, active c. 1435 - 1470

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink with watercolor, heightened with white, on vellum

  • Credit Line

    Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner

  • Dimensions

    overall: 31.4 x 20.1 cm (12 3/8 x 7 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2006.11.68

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Presumably, because of the French inscriptions, an early French collection; (Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London); sold to William Morris, Kelmscott House, 20 December 1894; Charles Fairfax Murray [1849-1919], 1895; (his sale, London, Sotheby's, 18 July 1919, lot 50); purchased (via Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London) by Sir Sydney Cockerell (sale, London, Sotheby's, 2 July 1958, lot 22); Rudolf Drey (sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 July 1977, lot 152); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990; given by Andrea Woodner in 2006.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1896

  • Catalogue of an Exhibition of English Medieval Paintings and Illustrated Manuscripts, Society of Antiquaries, London, 1896.

1978

  • Antiquity in the Renaissance, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, 1978, no. 101 (as Florentine School).

1983

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu and tour, 1983-85, no. 3 (as Florentine School).

1986

  • Dibujos de los siglos XIV al XX: Colección Woodner, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1986-87, no. 86 (as Italian or French possibly Jean Fouquet?).

  • Meisterzeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderten: Die Sammlung Ian Woodner, Haus der Kunst, Munich and Vienna, 1986, no. 73 (as Italian or French possibly Jean Fouquet?).

1987

  • Master Drawings: The Woodner Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1987, no. 72 (as Italian or French School possibly Jean Fouquet?).

1990

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, no. 89 (as Italian or French School possibly Jean Fouquet?).

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996, no. 4.

2006

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007.

2016

  • Recent Acquisitions of Dutch and Flemish Drawings, NGA, 2016.

2017

  • The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.

Bibliography

1938

  • Hoff, Ursula. "Meditations in Solitude." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. I (1938): 292-94.

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 3 vols. Chicago, 1938: II: no. 164c (as School of Fra Angelico).

1952

  • Longhi, Roberto. "Ancora sulla cultura del Fouquet." Paragone 27 (1952): 56-57.

  • Toesca, Ilaria. "Gli 'Uomini famosi' della Bibioteca Cockerell." Paragone III (January 1952): 16-20.

1953

  • Saxl, Fritz and Hans Meier. Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des Lateinischen Mittelalters, III: Handschriften in Englischen Bibliotheken. London, 1953: I: 279-280.

1956

  • Grassi, Luigi. Il disegno italiano dal Trecento al Seicento. Rome, 1956: 86.

1958

  • Arte Iombarda dai Visconti agli Sforza, Exh. cat. Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1958, mentioned under no. 202.

1959

  • Van Regteren Altena, J.Q. "Een bladzijde uit een Italiaanse codex van omsteeks 1445." Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 7 (1959): 82-83.

1961

  • Berenson, Bernard. I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. Rev. and amplified edn. 3 vols. Milan, 1961: no. 164c.

1962

  • Scheller, R.W. "Uomini famosi." Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 10 (1962): 56-57.

  • Virch, Claus. Master Drawings in the Collection of Walter C. Baker. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1962, mentioned under no. 1.

1965

  • Popham, A.E. and K.M. Fenwick. European Drawings in the Collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Toronto, 1965: mentioned under no. 1

1966

  • Simpson, W.A. "Cardinal Giordano Orsini (+1438) as a Prince of the Church and a Patron of the Arts: A Contemporary Panegyric and Two Descriptions of the Lost Frescoes in Monte Giordano." Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes 29(1966): 137, #10.

1967

  • Laclotte, Michel. "Rencontres Franco-Italiennes au milieu du XVe siècle." Acta Historiae Artium Academiae Scientaiarum Hungaricae 13 (1967) 35.

1968

  • Gómez-Moreno, Carmen. Medieval Art from Private Collections. Exh. cat. The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1968-89, mentioned under no. 19.

1969

  • Laskin, Myron. European Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1969: mentioned under no. 1.

1970

  • Toesca, Ilaria. "Di nuovo sulla 'Cronaca Cockerell.'" Paragone 239 (1970): 62-66.

1972

  • Mode, Robert L. "Masolino, Uccello and the Orsini 'Uomini Famosi.'" The Burlington Magazine 114 (June 1972): 320.

1977

  • Bologna, Ferdinando. Napoli e le Rotte Mediterranee della Pittura da Alfonso il Magnanimo a Ferdinando il Cattolico. Naples, 1977: 56-69, 73-75.

1980

  • Degenhart, Bernhard and Annegrit Schmitt. Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450. Berlin, 1980: vol. 2, part II, under 714, 381, 382, no. 9.

1983

  • Lombardi, Sandro. Jean Fouquet. Florence, 1983: 71, 79, 81.

1986

  • Sricchia Santoro, Fiorella. Antonello e l'Europa. Milan (1986): 31.

  • Sricchia Santoro, Fiorella. Review of Charles Sterling, Enguerrand Quarton le peintre de la Pietà d'Avignon and M. Laclotte and D Thiébaut, L'Ecole d'Avignon in Prospettiva 44 (1986): 83.

1988

  • Boskovits, Miklós. Arte in Lombardia tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Milan (1988): 216-219.

1989

  • Reynaud, Nicole. "Barthélemy d'Eyck avant 1450." Revue de l'Art. 84 (1989): 29, 31, fig. 30.

1993

  • Avril, François, and Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520. Paris, 1993: under no. 121, 225-226.

  • Thiébaut, Dominique. Le Christ à la colonne d'Antonello de Messine. Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre, 1993: 31-32.

  • Joannides, Paul. Massaccio and Masolino. A Complete Catalogue. London (1993): 453, pl. 153.

1995

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996: no. 4.

Inscriptions

by later hand, in pen and brown ink, various notations with each figure in Latin, repeated in French in 16th century hand

Wikidata ID

Q64537140