Weibliches Bildnis

The lady in the present drawing is elegantly

dressed, her neck buried in a ruffled collar, her

bodice adorned with pearls. Her hair, parted in the

middle, is covered by a coif, of which a doublebraided

chain is visible, interwoven with pearls.

However noble her attire, the artist focused on the

sitter’s facial features: large eyes with prominent

lower eyelids, a slightly protruding nose, and a

small mouth with swelling lips.

Portrait painting was a lucrative field for sixteenthcentury

Netherlandish artists. Curiously, only a

small number of portrait studies from that period

are extant today. This is perhaps attributable to

painters’ tendency to design their works directly

on panel or canvas, possibly discarding any

preliminary drawings after the work was finished.

The present sheet, in life-size format and on coarse

paper, its refined physiognomy combined with a

sketchier rendering of costume, is most likely a rare

example of a study made in preparation for a painting.

A connection to a painted image is indeed suggested

by a recent discovery: when the drawing was

taken off its mount, contour lines matching those

of the recto, made with a reddish medium, were

revealed on the verso. Leaving some impression in

the paper, these lines probably resulted from tracing

the recto’s contours by placing the paper against

a source of transmitted light such as a window. In a

second step, these red lines could have been pressed

against a prepared surface to create an offprint,

serving as the starting point for a painting.

The drawing entered the Albertina’s collection

as part of an as-yet-unidentified album.1 The

Cahier of around 1820 claims it as by Anthonis Mor

(1516/21–1576/77),2 an attribution first refuted by

Friedländer.3 Benesch gave the drawing to Adriaen

Thomasz. Key (1545–1589), under whose name it was

kept until being rejected by Jonckheere.4 Though no

corpus of drawings by Key offers direct comparison,

it is unlikely that the courtly lady sat for an artist

who painted almost exclusively women of civic or

patrician background.

Meder was the first to suggest the sitter’s identity.5

The idea that the lady depicted is Anna of Austria

(1549–1580), fourth wife of Philip II of Spain (r.

1556–98), though rejected by Benesch, was received

positively by Popham and Jonckheere. Recently,

her identity was decidedly put forth by Gschwend,6

who not only pointed out the striking resemblance

to painted portraits of Anna7 but also the fact that

the sitter’s prominent coif was typical of Hapsburg

women.8 As drawn, Anna is without a veil, indicating

that her likeness was probably sketched in Vienna

or Prague in 1569–70, prior to her marriage to

Philip II.9 The paper’s watermark would support

that notion. As a possible author of the present

drawing, Gschwend suggests Peter de Witte I

(1546/50–1628), who is documented as having made

portraits of Anna in Vienna, as well as of her sister

Elisabeth and father, Emperor Maximilian II (r.

1564–76).10

Incidentally, Anna’s story intersects with the

theme of the present exhibition: she travelled to

Antwerp in 1570 before embarking to Spain to

meet her royal husband, a departure allegorized

in a drawing by Chrispijn van den Broeck

(1530–1590/91) [87].

 

1. According to Meder 1922, 11, “aus einem Klebeband der

Albertina.”

2. I am grateful to Laura M. Ritter and Sophie Rosenberger for

kindly procuring this information.

3. As reported by Benesch O. 1928, 19.

4. Benesch O. 1928, 19; Jonckheere 2007, 157.

5. Meder 1922, 11.

6. Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Research Scholar, Centro

de Humanidades (CHAM), Zurich and Lisbon; her studies

on Hapsburg portraiture, including the present portrait,

will appear in Gschwend and Pereira 2022. I am grateful to

Gschwend for generously sharing her insights and for discussing

this drawing, giving me a preview of her research findings.

7. For instance, Alonso Sánchez Coello, Anna of Austria,

Queen of Spain, 1571, oil on panel, 176 x 98 cm, Kunsthistorisches

Museum, Vienna, 1733.

8. Part of the Spanish fashion, the coif was introduced to

the Vienna and Prague courts by Empress Maria of Austria

(1528–1603); information kindly shared by Annemarie Jordan

Gschwend, email to the author, August 21, 2021; see also

Bernis 1990, 100–108. This discussion will appear in Gschwend

and Pereira 2022 in the chapter “On Portraits and Portraitists at

Renaissance Habsburg Courts.”

9. Gschwend, email to the author, August 21, 2021.

10. Gschwend, email to the author, September 12, 2021.

 

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. 63