Physical description
Design for a breastplate, showing a hero standing on a pedestal while being saluted by two women with a sword and a mace respectively. The design also embodies two bound figures of captives, a heavily draped female figure, a cherub, grotesque animals, serpents, masks etc., the whole being linked by foliated arabesques. The drawing shows the left half of the design, but is extended slightly on the right to include some variants in what would otherwise be a straightforward repetition.
Place of Origin
France (made)
Date
1556-1559 (made)
Artist/maker
Etienne Delaune, born 1514 - died 1583 (Formerly attributed Franco-Flemish school, c. 1555, artist)
Materials and Techniques
Pen and ink and wash on paper
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed in pencil on the mount 'Coll. Spitzer' and numbered on a label attached to the mount '3298'
'3298'
Dimensions
Height: 43.18 cm, Width: 30.80 cm
Object history note
Frédéric Spitzer, Paris; Bought from H.M. Callman, London, 28.7.1958 for £200.0.0.
Historical context note
This drawing is a design by E. Delaune for a breastplate of the armours of King Henry II, who died in a jousting accident in 1559. According to Bruno Thomas, Delaune’s designs for these armours were most likely executed between 1556, to celebrate the Paix de Vaucelles, and 1559, just before his death.
Delaune supplied in total four projects for King Henry II’s armours: the first set is called ‘aux emblemes’ (emblems), the second set is called ‘aux serpents’ (snakes), the third set is called ‘à la tragédie de Jules César et Pompée’ (tragedy of Cesar and Pompey) and a fourth set, which includes E.5279-1958, and is called ‘à l’empereur romain’ (Roman emperor). This set includes 19 drawings.
Henry II’s armour ‘à l’empereur romain’ is preserved at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Accession number: 39.121a–n).
Descriptive line
Drawing, Design for a breastplate by Etienne Delaune, Fontainebleau school, 1556-1559
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1957-1958 London: HMSO, 1964
The full text of the entry is as follows:
"ANONYMOUS : Franco-Flemish School
Design for a breastplate, showing a hero (?Mars) standing on a pedestal while being saluted by two women with a sword and a mace respectively. The design also embodies two bound figures of captives, a heavily draped female figure, a cherub, grotesque animals, serpents, masks etc., the whole being linked by foliated arabesques. The drawing shows the left half of the design, but is extended slightly on the right to include some variants in what would otherwise be a straightforward repetition. The breastplate made from this drawing is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it forms part of an armour which was later passed into the collection of the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach at the Wartburg Armoury, Eisenach. On the back of the drawing are slight pencil sketched which echo the forms of the arabesques on the front. Franco-Flemish School, c.1555.
Inscribed in pencil on the mount Coll. Spitzer. Numbered on a label attached to the mount 3298 (the number of the drawing when in the Spitzer Collection).
Pen and ink wash. E.5279-1958
Note: The drawing was formerly in the collection of Frédéric Spitzer, Paris, with another, in similar style, for the breastplate of the armour formerly associated with the Emperor Rudolph II (now associated by Bruno Thomas with the Emperor Maximillian II) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, A drawing similar in design to E.5279-1958, but with variant details, was, in 1940, in the collection of Philip Hofer, Cambridge, Massachusetts. There are further drawings related to the New York armour in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich.
E.5279-1958 was illustrated as Pl.II of the section entitled 'Miniatures et Dessins' (in which group it is numbered 25) of Vol.5 of the catalogue of La Collection Spitzer, Paris, 1892, and as Pl.18 in Original-Zeichnungen Deutscher Meister des Sechzehnten Jahrhunderts by J. H. von Hefner-Alteneck, Frankfort-on-Main, 1889.
The accession number of the armour in the Metropolitan Museum is 39.121 A-N (Dick Fund).
For relevant literature see:
Grancsay, S.V.: 'A harness of a king of France', Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol.35, pp.12-16, 1940.
Grancsay, S.V.: 'The armor of Henry II of France from the Louvre Museum', Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New Series, Vol.11, pp.68-80, 1952.
Thomas, Bruno: 'Neues zum Werk des Eliseus Libaerts', Livrustkammaren (Journal of the Royal Armoury Stockholm), Vol.4, p.311, 1946-8.
Thomas, Bruno: 'Die Münchner Harnischvorzeichnungen im Stil François ler', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, Vo.55 (New Series Vol.19, pp.31-74, 1959.
Cedeström, R. &
Steneberg, K.E.: Skokloster Skölden, Stockholm, 1945.
Illustrated as Pl.1817 in L'Art Pour Tous, Vol.7, Section 199, 30 March 1868."
Thomas, Bruno: 'Die Münchner Harnischvorzeichnungen im Stil François ler', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, Vo.55 (New Series1959 - Vol.19), pp.31-74.
Thomas, Bruno: 'Neues zum Werk des Eliseus Libaerts', Livrustkammaren', Journal of the Royal Armoury Stockholm, Vol.4 (1946-8), p.311.
Grancsay, S.V.: 'The armor of Henry II of France from the Louvre Museum', Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New Series Vol.11 (1952), pp.68-80.
Grancsay, S.V.: 'A harness of a king of France', Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol.35 (1940), pp.12- 16.
Materials
Pen and ink; Wash
Subjects depicted
Masks; Arabesques; Grotesques; Cherub; Serpents; Breastplate
Categories
Drawings
Collection code
PDP
