A sheet of studies after the Antique

Like many northern artists from the 16th century onwards, Marten van Heemskerck travelled, in his case from Haarlem to Rome, where he stayed between 1532 and 1535. It was a time when wealthy collectors decorated their gardens with newly excavated fragments of Greek and Roman antiquities, many of which were in the process of restoration. Van Heemskerck carried out numerous studies of these sculptures, particularly those in the Palazzo della Valle, Case Maffei and Casa Galli, many of which are found in his sketchbooks, now in the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), Berlin. This page of studies also derives from that time. He has written the words 'de Vale' between the two Victories, which at the time were another Roman villa, Palazzo Valli-Rustici.  It was common practice for artists to cover a sheet of drawing paper which would later serve as models for a finished work. These drawings became highly collectible from the mid-16th century on, first by artists eager to learn from each other, and gradually by connoisseurs drawn to the freshness of preparatory drawings in which the process of immediate observation may be seen. 

Most of the figures have been identified. The two views of the reclining male figure with his arm over his head are taken from what must have been a replica of the dead son from the famous Niobe group (now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence). This other group was not covered until 1583, after van Heemskerck's death. Niobe was Queen of Thebes, whose children were killed by Apollo and Artemis to punish their mother's boastfulness. As classical studies of mortality, the Niobe group proved as influential among artists ase Laocoon and his sons, who were crushed to death by snakes. One the lower level of van Heemskerck's sheet are two studies of another of Niobe's sons, who stands with his foot on a rock.  Between them is a Hermes from the Palazzo della Vale garden. Poseidon is to the right.

The sheet also includes other figures from classical mythology, among them, on the left, Victory slaying a bull, in the same pose as in more at images of Mithras carrying out the same task. The Victory decorating a candelabrum discovered in the Forum of Trajan has the upper part broken off, but van Heemskerck's version indicates that an intact replica mualso have been in existence. The reverse side of this sheet also contains sketches of Hercules taken from a sarcophagus.

See: Mary Kisler, 'Marten van Heemskerck 1498-1574', in William MacAloon, Art at Te Papa (Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2009), p. 30. 

Dr Mark Stocker     Curator, Historical International Art                       February 2017