Satyrs and Nymphs; verso: partial counterproof of Heintz's "Studies for the Flight into Egypt" in The Courtauld Gallery, London

Joseph Heintz the Elder Swiss

Not on view

This drawing is a rare and outstanding example of Joseph Heintz the Elder's mature and most elaborate drawing style. Related to one of Heintz's most important paintings, made in 1599, probably for Emperor Rudolf II (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), the sheet is typical of the work of artists active at Rudolf's Prague court, who favored complex compositions with many figures in distorted positions and mythological subjects, often of a slightly lascivious nature. Combining fluent yet expressive pen lines, carefully applied heightening with white body color, red chalk, and washes, Heintz masterfully succeeded in adapting his composition to an oval form. Although there seems to be no direct literary source for the subject of this drawing and the corresponding painting, it has been connected to the story of Pan and Syrinx in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Satyrs and Nymphs; verso: partial counterproof of Heintz's "Studies for the Flight into Egypt" in The Courtauld Gallery, London, Joseph Heintz the Elder (Swiss, Basel 1564–1609 Prague), Brush and black ink, red chalk, gray and sanguine washes, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk and graphite underdrawing, incised, on off-white paper prepared with yellow wash, laid down to another sheet of laid paper; verso of secondary support: partial offset of a drawing in black and red chalk

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Satyrs and Nymphs; verso: partial counterproof of Heintz's
Satyrs and Nymphs; verso: partial counterproof of Heintz's
Satyrs and Nymphs; verso: partial counterproof of Heintz's
Satyrs and Nymphs; verso: partial counterproof of Heintz's

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