by-nc

A quintain

Maker

(artist)
1521-1599

Title

A quintain

Date of Production

(circa) 1575 - 1580

Medium

black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, white bodycolour (now oxidised and black in several areas) on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines, laid down on a historic support

Dimensions

Height: 32.7 cm
Width: 48.1 cm

Accession Number

D.1955.WF.4647

Mode of Acquisition

Witt Fund, purchase, 1955

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords






quintains


Label Text

This scene records one of the lavish entertainments hosted by Catherine de’ Medici, demonstrating royal magnificence at the French Court. In the game known as quintain riders try to break a spear in the mouth of a dragon fixed upon a stave. Placed on a pivot, it could whirl around and strike the assailant himself. Numbered “4” at bottom centre, Caron’s highly stylized drawing served as a preparatory design for the set of eight Valois Tapestries (Uffizi, Florence) considered to be among the finest wall hangings of the Renaissance.

Provenance

W. Thomson, junior; purchased from him by Colnaghi (London), 12 September 1955; purchased there, with the Witt Fund, by The Courtauld Institute Galleries, 29 September 1955 (£60).

Exhibition History

Antoine Caron. The Theatre of History, Musée National de la Renaissance - Chateau Ecouen, 01/04/2023-01/07/2023

The Valois Tapestries, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 18/11/2018-10/02/2019

Antoine Caron: Drawing for Catherine de Medici, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/01/2018-15/04/2018 ...More

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

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 04/07/1991-06/10/1991

Drawings from the Witt Collection, University of Southampton, 16/02/1970-04/03/1970

Newly Acquired Drawings for the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1965-1966

Between Renaissance and Baroque: European Art 1520-1600, Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, 1965

La Vie théâtrale au temps de la Renaissance, Institut Pédagogique National, Paris, 1963

A selection of drawings from the Witt collection: French drawings c. 1600-c. 1800, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1962

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 01/09/1960-01/10/1960 ...Less

Literature

Francastel, Pierre, 'Figuration et spectacle dans les tapisseries des Valois' in 'Les fêtes de la Renaissance', Paris 1956 - pp. 101-103
p. 102

Ehrmann, Jean, 'Dessins d'Antoine Caron pour le tapisseries des Valois' in 'Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de l'Art Français', November 1956
no. 4 on pp. 119-20
opp. p. 16

Art Quarterly, Spring 1958
ill. ...More

Ehrmann, Jean, 'Drawings by Antoine Caron for the Valois Tapestries in the Uffizi Florence' in 'Art Quarterly', 1958 - pp. 47-65; XXI
p. 55

Yates, Frances, The Valois tapestries, London 1959
pp. xxv, 3-5, 55-56, 59, 62, 66, 69-80

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 68

La Vie théâtrale au temps de la Renaissance, Institut Pédagogique National, Paris, 1963
cat. no. 139
no. 139 on p. 82

G.L. Conran, Between Renaissance and Baroque: European Art 1520-1600, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1965
cat. no. 293

Newly Acquired Drawings for the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1965-1966
cat. no. 23
pl. VII

Ehrmann, Jean, Antoine Caron: Peintre des fêtes et des massacres, Paris 1986
pp. 195-96
fig. 170 on p. 194

Groër, Léon de, Les tapisseries des Valois du Musée des Offices à Florence, 1987 - pp. 125-34
pp. 125-34

Old Master Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1990-1991, 1990
p. 120

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1991
no. 9, p. 26
ill. on p. 27 (b&w) and np (colour)
mentioned also in no. 8, p. 24

Borne, François, 'Excellence in obscurity: French drawings at the Courtauld Institute of Art' in 'Apollo', September 1991 - pp. 192-94; CXXXIV, 355
p. 192

Antoine Caron: Drawing for Catherine de' Medici, Courtauld Gallery 2018 London, Paul Holberton 2018, 84
pp. 28, 39, 52
cat. 6, pp. 53, 54

Hueber, Frédéric, Antoine Caron: peintre de ville, peintre de cour 1521-1599, Tours, Presses universitaires François Rabelais de Tours; Rennes, Presses unversitaires de Rennes 2018
p. 282, no. 18.4
Fig. p. 282

Beaufils, Oriane and Vincent Droguet (eds.), L'Art de la Fete a la Cour des Valois, Chateau de Fontainebleu 2020
pp. 106-148

Gottardo, Ketty, 'Antoine Caron (1521-1599): Le théatre de l'histoire', The Burlington Magazine, July 2023, pp. 2784 - 787. ...Less

Inscriptions

Inscription: Recto: lower left corner, graphite: “4”; lower centre edge brown ink: “4.”. Support (historic), Recto: lower right corner, graphite: “III”. Support (historic), Verso: left of centre, graphite: “16/15”; lower left edge, brown ink, obscured by some tape: “2 n 43 [?]”; lower right, graphite, Colnaghi number: “A 21083 Hx”.

Collector's mark: none.

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