c.1600 SOUTH GERMAN SCHOOL

 

Design for a Frontispiece, with Allegories of Justice and Strength

Pen and brown ink and brown wash.
The outlines partly indented with a stylus for transfer.
Laid down. 
240 x 166 mm. (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
This fine sheet is possibly the work of an artist in the circle of the Italo-Dutch painter Friedrich Sustris (c.1540-1599), and one who had perhaps travelled and worked in Italy. The Florentine giglio – the lily of the coat of arms of the city of Florence – at the bottom of the composition suggests a Tuscan connection, while an ecclesiastical element is indicated by the bishop’s mitre above the lily. The fact that the outlines are partly indented with a stylus suggests that this drawing is a design for a print.



This drawing was at one time in the collection of the collector and patron Sir John Witt (1907-1982), when it was thought to be by Perino del Vaga (1501-1547).

 

Provenance

Sir John Clermont Witt, London. 
 

c.1600 SOUTH GERMAN SCHOOL

Design for a Frontispiece, with Allegories of Justice and Strength