Description:

collectors mark, L.1223
red chalk, pen, brown ink and wash
145 x 225 mm

Provenance:

Giuseppe Vallardi collection (1784-1863), Milan
Private collection, Germany

Note:

The use of a male figure bearing ears of corn in a pose derived from the Apollo Belvedere to personify Summer belongs to a rare, but distinctly Northern, late 16th century iconographic tradition. Maarten van Heemskerck created the first early modern example of this kind, after which a print engraved by Philips Galle in 1563 is known, Summer. Heemskerck’s iconography seems to have found little favour with other artists and few examples of Galle’s print are known. One artist who did follow the iconography however was Hendrik Goltzius, whose design, Aestas, was engraved by his stepson Jacob Matham in 1589. Heemskerck, Goltzius, Matham and Galle were all active in Haarlem during the second half of the sixteenth century and it is possible that the author of the present sheet was similarly based there.

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