The Statue of Opportunity and the Passer-by [fol. 8 recto]

c. 1512/1515

French early 16th Century

Associated Names
French early 16th Century

Artist

This is a drawing of a figure standing in front of a castle-like structure with a winged figure on top. The image shows a building resembling a castle with two cylindrical towers topped with flags and a pointed roof in the center. The entrance is an arched doorway, and the front facade features decorative architectural elements. In the foreground, a smaller figure appears to be looking up at the structure, holding a staff or a long object. Above the building, a winged person stands on a platform, holding a globe and another spherical object. The drawing includes text around the central image, which seems to be written in a stylized medieval script. The background is plain, with no additional elements, emphasizing the figures and the structure.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Sale, London, Sotheby's, 13 July 1937, lot 64); (sale, London, Sotheby's, 15-17 November 1937, lot 546); (sale, London, Maggs Bros., Ltd., catalogue 709, 1941, no. 30); (purchased by William H. Schab Gallery via Paul Graupe); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York, by 1973; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1973

  • Woodner Collection II: Old Master Drawings from the XV to the XVIII Century, William H. Schab Gallery, New York and tour, 1973-74, no. 31.

Bibliography

1974

  • Butler, Joseph T. "Old Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection II." Connoisseur 186 (1974): 56-57.

1983

  • Massing, Jean Michel. "The Influence of Erasmus: Text and image in a French pre-emblematic manuscript." Manuscripts in the Fifty Years after the Invention of Printing (Colloquium Paper at the Warburg Institute) 1983: 75-82.

1987

  • Massing, Jean Michel. "The Illustrations of Lucian's Imago Vitae Aulicae." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 50 (1987): 215-16.

1990

  • Massing, Jean Michel. Du texte à l'image. La Calomnie d'Apelle et son iconographie. Strasbourg, 1990: 48, 67, 81, 93, 284-285, no. 8A, pl. 8A.

1994

  • Colenbrander, H.Th. "Een serie tekeningen naar Erasmus' Adagia: Jean Perréal, de Maître aux Pieds-Bots en de Meester van de Legende van de H. Egidius." in Boeken in de late Middeleeuwen. Hermans and van der Hoek, eds. Groningen, 1994: 211-220.

1995

  • Massing, Jean Michel. Erasmian Wit and Proverbial Wisdom. An Illustrated Moral Compendium for François 1er. London, 1995: 71-73, reprod. p. 136.

Inscriptions

various notations overall

Watermarks

Briquet 13542 (cut off)

Wikidata ID

Q64570844

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