Museum of Art
Artist: Abraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck (Flemish, 1596-1675)
Medium: pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash, over graphite on paper
Dimensions: 9 1/2 in. x 6 1/4 in. (24.13 cm. x 15.88 cm.)
Credit Line: Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III
Accession Number: 1811.83
- "Diepimbec"
Type: inscription
Location: old mount (removed)
Materials: pen and brown ink - "P.56, LL.6, No. 43"
Type: inscription
Location: verso of old mount
Materials: pen and ink - P. H. Lankrink, the artist/collector Sir Peter Lely's own assistant
Type: collector's mark
Location:
Materials:
- James Bowdoin III( Collector, Boston) - 1811.
- P. H. Lankrink(
Unknown,
)
-
.
(1628-1692); assistant to the artist/collector Sir Peter Lely - Bowdoin College Museum of Art( Museum, Brunswick, Maine) 1811- . Bequest
- Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art. ( 5/17/1985 - 7/7/1985)
- Clark Art Institute. ( 9/14/1985 - 10/27/1985)
- University of Kansas. ( 1/19/1986 - 3/2/1986)
- Art Gallery of Ontario. ( 5/17/1986 - 6/29/1986)
- Baroque Drawings
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art. ( 2/3/1981 - 3/5/1981)
- Drawing on Basics
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art. ( 10/14/1993 - 12/19/1993)
Type: catalogue Author: Henry Johnson Document Title: Catalogue of the Bowdoin College Art Collections Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Location: pp. 44-45 Reference: no. 19 Publisher: Bowdoin College Section Title: Pt. I, The Bowdoin Drawings Date: 1885 Type: catalogue Author: Bowdoin College Museum of Art Document Title: Bowdoin Museum of Fine Arts, Walker Art Building Edition: 4th Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Reference: no. 52 Publisher: Bowdoin College Section Title: Descriptive Catalogue of the . . . Date: 1930 Type: exhibition catalogue Author: David P. Becker Document Title: Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine Location: pp. 44-45 Reference: no. 19 Publisher: Bowdoin College Date: 1985
The subject of the Crucifixion was depicted often by Flemish artists of the early seventeenth century. Rubens and Van Dyck had both executed altarpieces of the subject by the 1630s. Van Dyck in particular influenced van Diepenbeeck's representations. The latter completed at least two oils: a sketch dating from the 1640s now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,1 and an altarpiece in the Church of St. Amelberga at Zanthoven, finished in 1652.2 The Fitzwilliam sketch is thought by Steadman to have been specifically designed to be engraved; there are prints after that depiction by Paulus Pontius and Cornelis Visscher.3 In addition to the Bowdoin sheet, there is another van Diepenbeeck drawing of the Crucifixion in the Uffizi.4
The format and figural composition of the Bowdoin and Fitzwilliam Crucifixions are similar, but with certain differences. They are in reverse to each other; the Fitzwilliam sketch includes the Good and Bad Thieves and eliminates the profusion of hovering putti seen here. The disposition of Christ and his attendant figures, including the departing soldiers, is much the same. The Bowdoin drawing could have been a preliminary idea for the more fully developed composition in the engravings after the Fitzwilliam model.
1. Inv. no. PD 77-1972, 450 x 328 mm.; discussed in Steadman 1973, pp. 66-68, 162-163, cat. no. 46, repr. pl. 141.
2. Repr. Steadman 1973, vol. 2, pl. 99.
3. The Metropolitan Museum owns two impressions of prints after the Fitzwilliam oil, both in reverse: a larger engraving, expanded horizontally, with three figures added, published by Visscher (Inv. no. 51.501.1641); and a reduced copy by Abraham Cuenradus (Inv. no. 51.501.1616).
4. Inv. no. 14228F (Kloek 1975, no. 399; photo in Witt Library).
Commentary credited to David P. Becker (or not otherwise captioned) appeared in his catalogue Old Master Drawings at Bowdoin College (Brunswick: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 1985).