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Fishing with hammers and dragnets on the river Arno

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, the verso prepared for transfer with red chalk

Dimensions

Height: 19.6 cm
Width: 29.1 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.281

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

Label Text

This is one of five drawings by Stradanus in The Courtauld collection, illustrating different methods of fishing on the river Arno, in and around Florence. Hammers and dragnets are used so that, as described in the text of the print after the drawing, 'the fish becomes deaf because of a knocking sound against the rocks. It rises, and with no effort is caught in the water'. The spirit which inhabited a river was commonly represented as a bearded god reclining on an overturned urn; the figure here represents the Arno. He is accompanied by Diana, the virgin goddess associated not only with hunting, but also with the moon, which was closely linked with water long before the influence of the moon on tides was known.

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 43.

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, 283, 1633-1635); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952) (£3.75); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Master Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 16/10/1991-19/01/1992

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. 146, under no. 463

Antei, Giorgio, Contra Natura: el arte y la crisis de la nauraliza, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá 2000
Illus. no. 144

Baroni Vannucci, Alessandra, Jan van der Straet detto Giovanni Stradano: flandrus pictor et inventor, Milan, 1997
no. 344 ...More

Master Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1991
cat. no. 65
pp. 138, 193
Illus. p. 139

Bok-van Kammen, Stradanus and the hunt, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 1977
pp. 535-36, under no. 99

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. 133-35
fig. 77 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: centre: shield with crown or tower in upper portion, two diagonal bands in lower portion (no match in Briquet and Peter Bower had no further information. Same paper as on RW.269, 283, 1634 and 1635).

Inscription: Recto: lower centre edge, brown ink, signed by the artist but disturbed by skinning: "Stra[...]s".

Collector's mark: Formerly on the mount (now missing), removed and now mounted with the drawing, stamped in black ink: William A. Baillie-Grohman (L.370).

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