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Fishing by night on the Arno near Florence

Maker

(artist)
1523-1605

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1578

Medium

black chalk, pen and brown ink, blue wash, white bodycolour on laid paper, incised for transfer, with brown ink framing lines

Dimensions

Height: 20.2 cm
Width: 28.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1635

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

fishing lines

Label Text

According to Vasari, the tapestries Stradanus designed for Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici were conceived by the ruler himself. By the end of the sixteenth century, the hunting theme was already a popular tapestry subject with the major courts of Europe. In this double scene, nighttime fishermen use candles to attract fish to the water’s surface while their counterparts use glimmering hooks during the day. At the centre, Diana, goddess of the hunt and the moon, joins the river god Arno shown resting on an urn.

Notes

Around 1561, Stradanus was commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici to prepare designs for a series of 28 tapestries of hunting scenes to decorate his villa at Poggio a Caiano; several series of engravings were published after these designs. This scene was engraved for a 1580 series, published by Philippe Galle, comprising 44 hunting subjects with a dedication to Cosimo de' Medici - this is plate 44.

Provenance

possibly Bernard Quaritch (London), in 1881 (if part of no. 3521 in his Catalogue of works on natural history, physics, mathematics, and other sciences offered for sale at the cash prices affixed, described as ‘Sixty original drawings by Stradanus, of Field Sports, Hunting Wild Animals, Fowling, Fishing &c.’) or 1890 (if part of no. 155 in his catalogue Exhibition of books and manuscripts, described as ‘Sixty original tinted Drawings by the painter Jan Stradanus’); possibly purchased there by William A. Baillie-Grohman, London and Tyrol (1851-1921), L.370; by descent to his wife; his estate sale, Sotheby’s (London), 14 May 1923, lot 162 (along with D.1952.RW.269, 281, 283, 1633 and 1634); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952) (£3.75); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Renaissance Modern, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 22/04/2015-07/06/2015

Master Drawings from the Witt and Courtauld Collections, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 17/11/1962-22/12/1962

Literature

Leesberg, Marjolein, The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, vol. 19, Johannes Stradanus, Oudekerk aan den Ijssel 2008
vol. III, p. 147, under no. 464

Baroni Vannucci, Alessandra, Jan van der Straet detto Giovanni Stradano: flandrus pictor et inventor, Milan, 1997
no. 346

Bok-van Kammen, Stradanus and the hunt, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 1977
pp. 538-39, under no. 100 ...More

Anthony Blunt and Philip Troutman, Master Drawings from the Witt and Courtauld Collections, 1962
cat. no. 46

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 130

Baillie-Grohman, W.A., Sport in Art: An Iconography of Sport During Four Hundred Years, From the Beginning of the Fifteenth to the End of the Eighteenth Centuries, London, 1913
pp. 133-34
fig. 76 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: none (but Peter Bower says is it the same paper as on RW.269, 281, 283 and 1634).

Inscription: Recto: lower right edge, brown ink, signed by the artist: "Stradanus".

Collector's mark: Removed and now mounted with the drawing, both stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b); William A. Baillie-Grohman (L.370).

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