- Museum number
- 1861,0608.174
- Description
-
Sine Cerere et Baccho Friget Venus (Without Bacchus and Ceres, Venus grows cold); naked Venus at centre, standing before a tree, two doves above, Bacchus at left, attended by a small faun, both holding bunches of grapes, Ceres at right holding a sickle and cornucopia, Cupid lying on the ground, blowing on a fire through a tube. 1593
Pen and brown ink, on vellum
- Production date
- 1593
- Dimensions
-
Height: 629 millimetres
-
Width: 494 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The drawing is mentioned by Karel van Mander in huis 'Schilderboeck' (1604, fol.285) who believed it was then in Rome ('...te Room, als ick meen').
For another version (oil grisaille) see also 1861,0810.14.
Literature: W. Bernt, 'Die Niederländischen Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts', I, 1957, no.260; E.J.K. Reznicek, 'Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius', Utrecht, 1961, cat.no.129; Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 1991-92 Deel 42-43, pp.29 and 57, fig.21a and 21b; G. Luijten and A. van Suchtelen, 'Dawn of the Golden Age', 1993, pp.70-1, fig.112; Nancy Bialler, 'Chiaroscuro woodcuts: Hendrick Goltzius and his time', Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and Cleveland Museum of Art, ex.cat., 1993, fig.87; Huigen Leeflang, Ger Luijten, and Nadine Orenstein, Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617: Drawings, Prints, and Paintings (New York/Amsterdam/Toledo, 2003): no. 87; Lawrence W. Nichols, 'The Paintings of Hendrick Goltzius', Doornspijk, 2013, p.51, fig.5.
The drawing is rather faded, and photographs of the drawing taken under ultra-violet light are available for study (in the dossier card in the Department).
The negative nos are:
PS 236725 (whole image)
PS 235862 (the doves, top centre)
PS 235863 (Bacchus' hands with landscape to left edge)
PS 236864 (top right segment to right and top edge, with top of main tree trunk and all but the leftmost wing of the pair of doves)
PS 236865 (upper right segment, with heads and upper torsos of Venus and Ceres)
PS 236866 (centre right segment, with drapery of Ceres and her left hand with sickle)
PS 236867 (lower right segment, with Cupid (lacking the tips of his wings, visible in 236866)
PS 236868 (top left segment, with branches)
PS 236869 (upper left segment: head and upper body of Bacchus to left edge)
PS 236870 (lower left segment from Bacchus' hands and Venus' right hand to below their knees, with landscape, to left edge)
PS 236871 (bottom left segment)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1984 BM, 'Master Drawings & Watercolours in the British Museum', no. 85
1991/2 Nov-Feb, Philadelphia Mus of Art, A New Acquisition in Focus
2003 Mar-May, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 'Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617)...'
2019-2020 14 Nov-12 Jan, London, BM, G90a, '50th Anniversary of the Harold Wright Scholarship'
- Acquisition date
- 1861
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1861,0608.174
