Lot 29: * HANS SPECKAERT 1530 - CIRCA 1577 ROME

THE MARRIAGE OF TOBIAS AND SARAH, THEIR WEDDING NIGHT TO THE RIGHT

measurements note
149 by 292mm; 5 7/8 by 11 1/2 in

pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white, over traces of black chalk, on blue paper

PROVENANCE

Arnold Otto Meyer;
his sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 19-20 March 1914, lot 541 (as Federico Zuccaro, with another drawing of Tobias curing his father's blindness);
with C. G. Boerner, Düsseldorf (catalogue, Ausgewählte Graphik und Zeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderts, 1976, no. 27, reproduced, as Speckaert);
with Paul Drey Gallery, New York, 1982;
Private Collection, Belgium

EXHIBITED

Brussels, Société Générale de Banque, Dessins du XV^e au XVIII^e Siècle dans les Collections Privées de Belgique, 1983, no. 14, reproduced;
Metz, Musée de Metz, La Réalité magnifiée, 1993;
Rotterdam, Kunsthal, European Master Drawings Unveiled, 2002, cat. no. 13, reproduced

LITERATURE

E. J. Siroká, Northern Artists in Italy ca. 1565-85: Hans Speckaert as a draughtsman and a teacher, PhD thesis for Princeton University, reproduced by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1995, pp. 351-4, cat. no. A6, reproduced fig. 72

NOTE

The drawing illustrates two episodes from the Book of Tobit, chapters 7 and 8. Tobias marries Sarah, whose seven previous husbands have died before consummating their marriages. Therefore, to the right Tobias and Sarah can be seen praying, having burned fish offal to exorcise the demon, who flies up the chimney. Tobias's dog, who plays such an important role in his travels, is clearly present in these episodes. The drawing is reminiscent of Italian Mannerist works, hence the previous attribution to Zuccaro. At the time of the Boerner exhibition in 1976, the correct attribution to Speckaert was made, and was confirmed by T. Gerzi and N. Dacos. A copy of the drawing, catalogued as Lombard School, is in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo (see C. Ragghianti, Disegni dell'Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Milan 1963, no. 67, pl. XXXVI).