drawing;
cartoon
- Museum number
- 1887,0613.64
- Description
-
Head of a horse (Conversion of St Paul): fragment of a cartoon for tapestry of the History of St Paul; in profile to right
Brush drawing in brown ink with distemper, over black chalk, pricked for transfer
- Production date
- 1530 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 370 millimetres
-
Width: 325 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This is one from a group of three irregular fragments of tapestry cartoons relating to the History of St Paul, see 1887,0613.64-66. Popham descibes these as the works of Coecke's assistants due to the large size. He compares it to a complete cartoon which is in the town hall of Brussels showing the beheading of St Paul, descibed as a copy by Friedländer.
The 'head of a horse' and 'soldiers fleeing' are from the Conversion of St Paul (a tapestry is in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich); while the head of St Paul is from the Sacrifice at Lystra (tapestries are in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich and in Schlosshotel Kronberg).
A comparable cartoon was sold at Christie's London (7 July 1992), attributed to Michiel Coxcie (dated around 1540); see Jean-Luc Pypaert, 'Michiel Coxcie', in J. Giltaij 'European Masters: Van der Goes, Michelangelo, Van Goyen, Fragonard and others from Belgian Collections', exh.cat. Amsterdam-Gent, 2002, cat.no.8. Stijn Alsteens atributes the group of St Paul drawings to Coecke and his workshop (see below).
Literature: E. Cleland, ed., Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry, New York and New Haven, 2014, cat 28; S. Alsteens, 'The Drawings of Pieter Coecke van Aeslt' Master Drawings LII:3 (2014) B1.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1973, BM, Netherlandish prints and drawings (no cat.)
2014/15 Oct-Jan, New York, Met Mus of Art, Pieter Coecke van Aelst
- Acquisition date
- 1887
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1887,0613.64
