Lot 101: JUSTUS VAN EGMONT (1601-1674) AN ALLEGORICAL SCENE.

Black chalk and pen and brown ink heightened with white. 351 by 485 mm. The attribution of this drawing is due to Anne-Marie Logan, who compares it with a stylistically and iconographically very similar drawing of Fame Crowning a Victorious General, in an American private collection (see Anne-Marie Logan, Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens, exhib. cat., Wellesley/Cleveland 1993, cat. 18, illus.). The latter in turn served as the basis for a far more precisely executed, worked-up drawing, possibly a frontispiece design, now at Yale (Logan, op. cit., cat. 19, illus.). In their allegorical conception and compositional structure, all three of these drawings strongly reflect van Egmont's early training in the studio of Rubens, and his involvement with the Medici cycle. Soon after this apprenticeship he travelled to Paris, where he remained for some 25 years (circa 1628-54), working for illustrious patrons such as the Duc d'Orleans and Marshal Daumont, and becoming, in 1648, a founder member of the Academie Royale. This grand allegorical design may perhaps date from the artist's French period, but more probably from after his return to Antwerp, as the costumes seem more Flemish and the complex and obscure iconography cannot easily be explained in the context of French history. Although the precise subject depicted has yet to be identified, the child towards the left of this composition is clearly a vital element- the drawing may have been made to celebrate a real royal birth, but equally the baby may represent the helpless, infant nation, which the military triumphs of the figure in armour had somehow served to protect. We are very grateful to Eunice Williams for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.