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  • five-pointed star over hand with initials CM (somewhat related to Briquet 11351, 11363)
    Type: watermark
    Location:
    Materials:
  • James Bowdoin III( Collector, Boston) - 1811.
  • 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)
		

Konrad Oberhuber first recognized the connection to the circle of Hans Rottenhammer, who produced a number of mythological scenes throughout his career, often based on his study of Venetian artists such as Titian. The drawing appears to resemble the figure types, composition, and technique of the German artist, particularly in the elongated proportions and graceful contortions of the figures (Volrábová, 139). The use of red wash is not uncommon in Rottenhammer’s oeuvre, but the simplified treatment of the foliage and heavy application of the white heightening, which obscures rather than highlights some of the forms would indicate a studio work rather than Rottenhammer himself. The subject was also a common one in Rottenhammer’s studio as he produced a number of mythological paintings and drawings. Another drawing of the subject is at the Yale University Gallery (fig. 1), but it is much more loose and less finished that the Bowdoin sheet.

Sarah Cantor

References:

Volrábová, Alena. “Hans Rottenhammer and the Technique of Drawing,” in Hans Rottenhammer: Ergebnisse des in Kooperation mit dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Tschechischen Akademie der Wissenschaften durchgeführten internationalen Symposions am Weserrenaissance-Museum Schloß Brake (17.-18. Februar 2007), edited by Heiner Borggrefe, Vera Lüpkes, Lubomír Konečný, and Michael Bischoff, 139-144. Marburg: Jonas Verlag, 2007.

Images:

Fig. 1: Hans Rottenhammer The Judgment of Paris, 1600-05, pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk on paper, Yale University Art Gallery, 1961.65.27 http://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/57997

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).