Kartusche mit dem Urteil des Paris

There are instances where drawing, as an art form,

appears fairly enigmatic: where its message, maker,

or function is still cloaked in obscurity. In [24], the

content, at least, is obvious. To the left, under a

tree, the young Paris is sleeping. He has taken off

his helmet, loosened his cuirass, and his sword has

just fallen out of his hand. In his dream, Mercury

appears in the form of a king, holding the apple—or

rather, pomegranate—of discord in his hand. It is

the eternal beauty contest, with the young man

appointed as judge and the three goddesses Juno,

Minerva, and Venus awaiting the title of most

beautiful.1 The ensuing course of events is indicated

in the distance: troops gather, alluding to the Trojan

War that erupts after Paris abducts Helen, wife of

King Menelaus of Sparta, and the promised prize

for choosing Venus.

The scene is surrounded by an elaborate frame

combining vegetal ornament with grotesque motifs.

Similar imagery is found in [25], where the empty

field encompassed by foliage and tendrils was long

considered reserved for a mirror.2 More recent publications

deem it a monstrance.3 The angels flanking

the object suggest that a religious connotation is

more likely. Both drawings may be connected with a

goldsmith’s work. Friedländer associated the rather

peculiar shape of [24] with a bag, which Van den

Brink elaborated into “a cartouche or silver mounting

for a bag or purse.”4

When it comes to authorship, the drawings have

received various attributions. Rooses (1902) described

them as by Jan Gossart (1478–1532), whereas

Benesch (1928) gave them to Lancelot Blondeel

(1496–1561). This suggestion, however, was not

followed by successive authors. Friedländer (in both

the 1937 and 1972 editions) kept the drawings as by

Gossart but was the last to do so. Since Folie’s article

of 1951, scholars have continued to reject Gossart’s

hand. In the most serious discussion on the two

drawings, Van den Brink (2004/5) ascribed them to

a follower of Gossart,5 while Alsteens6 revised them

to “Circle of Jan Gossart.”

The two sheets were drawn in the same manner,

using pen and brown ink for contours and hatching.

[25] was rendered rather fluidly, forming curls and

little loops. Pen was also used to apply the white

medium, similarly combining sinuous structure

with sweeping line. As rightfully asserted by the

scholars rejecting Gossart’s attribution, this technique

is hardly identified with the artist’s hand. His

drawings on colored ground, such as the Albertina’s

unfinished Holy Family with Saint Catherine and

Another Female Saint (fig. 1)7 or The Beheading of

Saint John the Baptist (fig. 2), reveal a more sober,

less playful manner. Studies like Standing Warrior

in Fantastic Armor (fig. 3) come closer, both in terms

of motif and style, if we consider the extravagant

armor worn by Paris [24] and the graphic language.

However, figure 3 lacks the flow and elegance of line

found, for example, in the costumes worn by the

angels in [25].

What is perhaps the most compelling argument

against Gossart’s authorship was discovered only

recently, while preparing the present exhibition.

The inscriptions found on both sheets were written

in the same brown ink used in the respective drawings—

prompting the revelation that they must have

been written by the draftsman himself. By this

very fact, Gossart is excluded: he did not sign his

drawings as Jennin Mabuse. Equally unlikely is an

artist from his immediate circle, as the handwriting

points to a (mid-)sixteenth- or possibly even seventeenth-

century hand.8 Whoever the draftsman

was, he must have had his reasons for ascribing the

drawings to Gossart, most likely by copying nowlost

originals. In this context, it may be appealing

to assume that the portion of the inscription in [25]

that has been interpreted as some kind of code, B:o9

or B:07,10 renders a date written on the presumed

original if we read it as an admittedly scribbled

1510. This is tempting, insofar as the Gossart

drawings closest in style (see figs. 1–3) are assigned

to that same period, 1509–15. However, we need to

be cautious. Grotesque ornament, as seen here, does

not appear in Gossart’s oeuvre prior to the early

1520s.11 A circa 1510 date for the presumed originals

would predate its introduction in the Netherlands

by about ten years, although, given his 1508–9 visit

to Rome, Gossart could easily have discovered such

ornament prior to 1510.12

In any case, [24] and [25] apparently record lost

works by Gossart. When used for functional drawings,

colored ground often points to presentation

sheets, The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist being

one example.13 We may assume that the maker

of the Vienna sheets did not choose the colored

ground “out of the blue.” As prepared paper with

its chiaroscuro aesthetic was highly prized by

discerning clients,14 the presumed originals were

evidently made for prestigious commissions. This

is confirmed by the motifs of the Vienna drawings.

Surmounting the drawn frame in [25] is an empty

shield, apparently to be filled with heraldry. In [24],

the youthful prince was a potential role model for

a young man of noble origin, advised to make the

right choices.

 

1. The Judgment of Paris is here given in its medieval version,

which must have been conventionalized by the early sixteenth

century; see Husband 1995, 130–31.

2. Rooses 1902.

3. First mentioned by Benesch O. 1928. Van den Brink in Belkin

and Van Hout 2005, 51, offers both interpretations; Alsteens in

Ainsworth et al. 2010, 406, only mentions the monstrance.

4. Van den Brink in Belkin and Van Hout 2005, 52.

5. Because of related figure types, he gave it to the same

anonymous artist who painted Triptych with the Holy Family,

Music-Making Angels, and Saints Catherine and Barbara,

c. 1515–25, oil on panel, 50 x 31.5 cm (central panel),

47.5 x 12.5 cm (wings), Museu de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, 1429 Pint.;

Van den Brink in Belkin and Van Hout 2005, 48–50, no. 14.

6. Ainsworth et al. 2010.

7. The figure of Saint Catherine in the Albertina drawing is

related to that of Saint Barbara in the painting cited in note 5;

see Belkin and Van Hout 2005, 321.

8. See Ainsworth et al. 2010, 406.

9. Benesch O. 1928, 8; Belkin and Van Hout 2005, 51.

10. Alsteens in Ainsworth et al. 2010, 406.

11. For instance, Jan Gossart, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin,

c. 1520–22, oil on panel, 110.5 x 83.5 cm, Kunstbibliothek, Berlin,

HdZ 4820; Ainsworth et al. 2010, no. 107.

12. See Alsteens in Ainsworth et al. 2010, 395, for a discussion of

this issue.

13. That drawing only recently found its match, an extant

glass roundel in St. Oswald’s Church in Malpas, Cheshire;

see Ainsworth et al. 2010, 346, fig. 279, confirming earlier

conjectures. On colored-ground drawings serving for

presentation, see, in addition to Porras’s essay in this volume,

Wood 1998, 109; Belkin and Van Hout 2005, 172; Brahms 2016,

142.

14. On the demand for chiaroscuro drawings as observed in the

fifteenth century, see Brahms 2018, 39, 42.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 24-25