Lot 129: l,u - ATTRIBUTED TO ADRIAEN THOMASZ. KEY ANTWERP (?) CIRCA 1544 - AFTER 1589

SOLD BY THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM TO BENEFIT FUTURE PAINTING ACQUISITIONS

PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM ORTELIUS, IN NEAR PROFILE, BUST-LENGTH, FACING TO THE RIGHT, RESTING HIS LEFT HAND ON A GLOBE

measurements note
17 1/8 by 14 in.; 43.5 by 35.4 cm.

inscribed center right: CONTEMNO/ ET/ ORNO

oil on panel

PROVENANCE

I. Riesner Collection, Brussels;
His sale, Brussels, Galerie Fievez, November 19, 1927, lot 65 (as Antonio Moro, Portrait d'un géographe);
Anton W.M. Mensing Collection, Amsterdam, died 1936 and then held in trust by the estate until sold, Amsterdam, Frederick Muller & Cie., November 15, 1938, lot 68 (as Antonio Moro, Portrait of Abraham Ortelius), where acquired by J. Paul Getty;
J. Paul Getty Collection, California, until 1954 when donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California, no. 54.PB.2.

LITERATURE

H. Hymans, Antonio Moro, son oeuvre et son temps, Brussels 1910, p. 156 (as Antonio Moro);
B.B. Fredericksen, Handbook of Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 1965, p. 11 (as Antwerp Painter, c. 1575-80 (possibly Adriaen Thomas Key);
BB. Fredericksen, Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 1972, p. 64, no. 79 (as Attributed to Adriaen Thomas Key);
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, p. 66, reproduced (as Attributed to Adriaen Thomas Key);
P. Binding, Imagined Corners: Exploring the World's First Atlas, London 2003, p. 42 (as Attributed to Adriaen Thomas Key).

NOTE

Abraham Ortels, usually Latinized to Ortelius, was a famous mapmaker and geographer, and is generally credited with the invention of the modern atlas. The present work is the only extant or known portrait of Ortelius painted during his lifetime and can be dated prior to 1579. It is almost certainly the prototype for Philips Galle's engraving that illustrates the frontispiece of Ortelius' 1579 atlas Theatrum orbis terrarumυ1. The engraving, in reverse, is however in oval format and omits the hand and globe, but otherwise corresponds extremely closely in the details.

Previously attributed to Antonio Moro, the attribution to Key seems to have been first proposed by Burton B. Fredericksen in his 1965 catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum (see Literature). A 17th century copy by Rubens, commissioned by Balthasar Moretus, is in Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum, no. V.IV.54υ2, and another copy, of lesser quality, is in the Schoenborn Collection at Pommersfelden. In his 1618 A collector's cabinet with Abraham Ortelius and Justus Lipsius,υ3 Frans Francken's depiction of Ortelius is almost certainly copied from the present work. Francken has extended him to full-length, seated at a table, maintaining the left hand placed on the globe.
Ortelius' tomb in the church of the Abbey of Saint-Michael in Antwerp originally contained a fuller version of the inscription that read: CONTEMNO ET ORNO/ MENTE MANU. Whether the Getty inscription is incomplete or is simply an earlier version is not known. The meaning of the inscription has caused much debate; amongst many suggestions for its meaning are 'I divide and I order' and 'I despise and honor'.

1. see The New Hollstein: Philips Galle, part IV, Rotterdam 2001, p. 149, no. 659, reproduced;
2. see M. Rooses, L'oeuvre de P.P. Rubens, Soest 1977, vol. IV, p. 227, no. 1014;
3. sold Amsterdam, Christie's, November 8, 1999, lot 126;