- Museum number
- 1861,0810.14
- Description
-
Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus would freeze); Venus, Ceres and Bacchus; seated on a bed, Venus at centre, Ceres at left with her back turned, Bacchus holding a wine glass near a table at right, on which are a carafe and a bowl of fruit, two putti holding curtains back on the bed and two others on clouds above supporting a cluster of grapes, Cupid at left foreground also holding grapes. 1599
black chalk, pen in black, brush and oils in brown, grey, white, yellow and pink
- Production date
- 1599
- Dimensions
-
Height: 435 millimetres
-
Width: 321 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- For another version (pen and ink on vellum) see also 1861,0608.174. A related red and black chalk drawing by Goltzius of the same subject is in the Royal Museum of Belgian Art, Brussels (inv. no. 1362), and a related engraving by Jan Saenredam after Goltzius is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-P-OB-10.586).
Another grisaille picture at Aix-en-Provence repeats the present drawing in reverse and is probably a copy from Saenredam's engraving.
Literature: E.J.K. Reznicek, 'Die Zeichnungen von Hendrick Goltzius', Utrecht, 1961, cat.no.130; Huigen Leeflang, Ger Luijten, and Nadine Orenstein, Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617: Drawings, Prints, and Paintings (New York/Amsterdam/Toledo, 2003): 230-233, no. 83.2; Lelia Packer and Jennifer Sliwka, 'Monochrome: Painting in Black and White', London, National Gallery, 2017, cat. no. 22.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1986/7 Nov-Jan, Washington, NGA, 'The Age of Bruegel', (cat.)
1991/2 Nov-Feb, Philadelphia Mus of Art, A New Acquisition in Focus
2003 Mar-May, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 'Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617)...'
2017-2018 30 Oct-18 Feb, London, The National Gallery, Monochrome: Painting in Black and White
- Acquisition date
- 1861
- Acquisition notes
- Not sold in Hawkins sale of 29.iv.1850, but privately to Colnaghi.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1861,0810.14
