Workshop of Bartholomeus SPRANGER (Antwerp, 1546... Lot 48

Workshop of Bartholomeus SPRANGER (Antwerp, 1546 - Prague, 1611) Study for Adam. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, white gouache highlights, very diluted, on paper (watermark: double V surmounted by a cross) 192 x 125 mm. Stylet marks on the figure's contours and musculature. Annotated lower left: "Spranger". On the back, handwritten label, probably dating from the 19th century: Barthélémy Spranger / Antwerp (1546-1628) / N°126 (Small folds, small stains, pinhole). A fine example of Mannerist drawing, our study for Adam is to be compared with the engraving of "Adam and Eve" by Hendrick Goltzius in 1585, based on a painting by Spranger, now considered lost (a copy of the engraving in London, The British Museum, inv. F,1.149). "Adam et Eve" would have been composed around 1576, quite early in Spranger's career, when he was in Vienna, having just lost his main sponsor, Emperor Maximilian II, and awaiting the arrival in the imperial capital of his successor, Rudolf II. This theme, here rather wisely composed and inspired by Dürer's "Adam and Eve" (1504), would be reinterpreted by the artist several times later in his career, with a much more sensual twist ("The Fall of Paradise", ca. 1593-1595, oil on panel, 126 x 79 cm.; Vienna, KunstHistorisches Museum, inv. GG_2417; "Adam and Eve", ca. 1593, pen and black ink on white chalk, brown wash, 241 x 117 mm, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv. 1209HZ.). Goltzius's engraving shows Eve gathering the apple from the serpent's mouth, while Adam stretches out his arm to seize it in turn. Our drawing, which features a mixed media technique and a format found in several other Spranger drawings, differs from the engraving in its narration: here, Adam already has the apple in his hand. Other compositional differences are to be noted: the position of the right hand, the muscularity of the bust, and the vegetation acting as a sexual cover. It is interesting to note in our drawing the presence of a compositional trick characteristic of Spranger's graphic writing: what Sally Metzler calls "his typical backward number seven", which the artist uses to add modelling to the knees, a detail visible on "Venus and Love" (London, The British Museum, inv. SL,5226.143), but also on "Adam and Eve" (Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv. 1209HZ.) Comparative works : Ill.1 Love and Psyche Pen and brown ink, brown wash and white highlight, 168 x 138 mm, London, The British Museum, inv. SL,5226.144 Ill.2 Venus and Love Pen and brown ink, brown wash and white highlights, 194 x 193 mm. London, The British Museum, inv. SL,5226.143 Ill.3 Adam and Eve Pen and black ink over white chalk, brown wash, 241 x 117 mm. Staatliches Museum Schwerin, inv. 1209HZ. Documentary sources : - S. Metzler, Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague, cat. exp. New-York, Metropolitan Museum publications, 2014.