drawing
- Museum number
- SL,5214.146
- Description
-
Roman ruins, possibly the Colosseum; a wall overgrown with vegetation, with arches and rectangular openings above; formerly in the 1637 album containing 279 miscellaneous drawings. c.1593
Pen and brown ink with brown wash
- Production date
- 1593 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 154 millimetres
-
Width: 215 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Formerly described as anonymous by Popham, this drawing was subsequently attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Schoubroeck (by Martin Royalton-Kisch) before being given its present attribution to Jan Breughel the Elder again.
Very similar drawings, showing Roman ruins (possibly showing the Colosseum) and executed in the same loose style and with the same application of the wash, are signed and inscribed by Jan Brueghel. Two sheets in the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen (inv.nos.3-4) are authentically inscribed "Roma" and "1593" or "1595". A third drawing in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv.no.26327, bought at Sotheby's, 26 November 1970) is signed "Brueghel". A drawing by Schoubroeck, signed and dated 1595, in the Fondation Custodia in Paris shows some similarities with these works by Bruegel; see K.G. Boon, 'L'époque de Lucas de Leyde et Pierre Bruegel', exh.cat. Florence-Paris, 1980-1981, cat.no.125 and K.G. Boon, 'The Netherlandish and German Drawings of the XVth and XVIth centuries of the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris, 1992, cat.no.181. Schoubroeck's paintings, however, feature italianised ruined buildings, rather than existing Roman ruins.
AVC
Literature: M. Winner, 'Zeichnungen des Älteren Jan Brueghel', in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 3 (1961), Berlin, 1961, p.195, figs.5a-b (Rotterdam drawings); M. Winner, 'Neubestimmtes und unbestimmtes im zeichnerischen Werk von Jan Brueghel d. Ä.', in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 14 (1972), Berlin, 1972, pp.122-124, fig.1 (Berlin drawing); M. Winner, in 'Pieter Breughel d. Ä. als Zeichner', exh.cat. Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, 1975, cat.no.112 (Berlin drawing; with a discussion of the related drawings; the BM sheet is not mentioned but it might have been overlooked as it was kept with the anonymous unmounted drawings at that time).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- SL,5214.146
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: T,10.146
