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Crispin van de Passe the Elder (1564-1637) Actaeon transformed into a stag, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses,Ic.1600 Pen and brown ink with grey wash 27.1 x 35.3 cm Possibly Zaccaria Sagredo (d. 1729); from whose heirs bought by Joseph Smith, 1752; from whom bought by George III, 1762 The two volumes of Van de Passe’s studies for the Metamorphoses formed part of George III’s collection of prints and drawings, which was kept in the library rooms at Buckingham House. The early history of the drawings is not known, but the inclusion of 141 drawings by Crispin van de Passe in volume 7 of Sagredo’s drawing collection is intriguing. The Metamorphoses drawings were probably remounted after their arrival in the King’s collection. The stiff card to which they are now applied, and the calf binding, are similar to that found on a number of volumes made up for George III in the Royal Bindery at Buckingham House. The large crown indicates George III’s ownership and was a finishing tool much used for larger volumes in the King’s collection. Crispin van de Passe began his artistic career in Antwerp in the early 1580s, and was primarily an engraver and print publisher. His prints, engraved from his own or from others’ designs, covered a wide range of subjects: portraits, historical, allegorical and mythical scenes, book illustrations and so forth. The small drawings in the present volume were executed - in pen and ink with touches of wash - as preparatory studies for a publication issued in book form in Cologne in 1602, consisting of prints of scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid, a leading figure in the social and literary world at the court of the Emperor Augustus (63 BC-AD 14), wrote the Metamorphoses - a collection of mythological tales of transformation - from about AD 2 onwards; the stories were extremely popular with later writers in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This series of colourful and dramatic stories made excellent subjects for the artist, and Van de Passe’s published series of prints derived from these drawings went into a second edition in 1607, with an increased number of plates. RL 70323 Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004 |
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