Landscape with Figures Trimming Trees, an Allegory of the Month of March; Verso: Mountainous Landscape with Two Men Crossing a Bridge

This rather peculiar double-sided drawing contains two sketches that are widely divergent in both style and subject matter. The recto shows a cursory sketch of a landscape with figures pruning trees. In the upper center appears the zodiacal sign of the Ram, accompanied by the inscription ‘Martius’, indicating that the image is meant to symbolize the month March, with the typical labors of that time of year. The verso, on the other hand, shows a wide mountainous panorama with at its center two figures crossing a wooden bridge. Rocks and trees flank the view on a valley with city walls in the distance.

The sheet was previously attributed to the Netherlandish landscapist Lodewijk Toeput. Stylistically, however, the drawings are not compatible with the artist’s draftsmanship; the recto shows a boldness in the application of washes and crudeness in line that is uncharacteristic of Toeput. The posture and physiognomy of the figures, moreover, are rendered with a certain premeditation that one would not expect in a preliminary sketch by a sixteenth-century artist. In contrast, the drawing on the verso is executed in thin and rather hesitant lines with a lighter ink. The washes are applied in a different, but equally indiscriminate manner. A pinkish-white bodycolor – a medium completely alien to Toeput’s work – is used to articulate various background elements in the composition. All these aspects raise doubt about the drawing’s authorship, and it seems likely that, as has been suggested by Dr. Teréz Gerszi, this sheet might be the work of a copyist.[1]



[1] Handwritten note of Dr. Gerszi d.d. 1 Nov. 1988 in museum folders.