© President and Fellows of Harvard College

© President and Fellows of Harvard College
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© President and Fellows of Harvard College
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© President and Fellows of Harvard College
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© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Gallery Text
Van Orley served as painter to the Brussels court of the
Habsburg regent Margaret of Austria and also worked
for her successor, Mary of Hungary. Although he may
never have visited Italy, he played a crucial role in the
introduction of Italian Renaissance style into the art of
the Netherlands. In addition to painting altarpieces and
portraits, Van Orley was a brilliant designer of
tapestries and stained glass. Pentecost is one of 13
surviving cartoons (full-scale drawings) for a lost or
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unidentified cycle comprising at least 21 stained glass
windows devoted to scenes from Christ’s Passion. All
have a ruled vertical center line and ruled single or
double horizontal lines in red chalk, which mark the
positions of the metal bars that secured the glass
within the window frame.
Identification and Creation
Object Number
2002.22
People
Bernard van Orley, Netherlandish (Brussels, Belgium c.
1491/92 - 1542 Brussels, Belgium)
Title
Pentecost
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Descent of the Holy Spirit
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1520-30
Culture
Netherlandish
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Physical Descriptions
Medium
Charcoal, black chalk, stumped, and gray wash, center
line, framing lines and indications of saddle bars and Tbar in red chalk on six joined sheets of antique laid
paper, mounted on Japanese paper; scattered touches
of graphite restoration
Dimensions
89.7 x 60.1 cm (35 5/16 x 23 11/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
inscription: lower right, brown ink : XX... [? The tail of a
third digit, lost with the corner of the sheet, is visible.]
watermark: Undecipherable monogram (very close to
Briquet 9890, Utrecht, 1523)
Provenance
Perhaps Van Parijs, Brussels, by descent; to his heirs,
sold; [Muller, Amsterdam, 11-12 January 1878, within lot
322.] Franck, Brussels, sold; via Pascal Ruys Raquez; to
André Leysen, Antwerp, sold; [Sotheby's, New York, 25
January 2002, lot 18, repr.], bought in and
subsequently sold; to Harvard University Art Museums;
Marian H. Phinney Fund, Agnes Mongan Purchase
Fund, William C. Heilman Fund and through the
generosity of David Rust, Howard Lepow, an
anonymous donor, the Weingart Foundation and the
DBH Foundation, 2002.22.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Marian H.
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Phinney Fund, Agnes Mongan Purchase Fund, William
C. Heilman Fund and through the generosity of David
Rust, Howard Lepow, an anonymous donor, the
Weingart Foundation and the DBH Foundation
Accession Year
2002
Object Number
2002.22
Division
European and American Art
Contact
[email protected]
Publication History
Karel G. Boon, L'Epoque de Lucas de Leyde et Pierre
Bruegel: Dessins de Anciens Pay-Bas Collection Frits
Lugt, Fondation Custodia (Florence and Paris, 19801981), under cat. no. 114, pp. 165-7 (n. 4) (as Descente
du Saint-Esprit)
Société Générale de Banque / A.S.B.L. les Amis de
Dessin, Dessins du XVe au XVIIIe Siecle dans les
collections privées de Belgique, exh. cat., Société
Genérale de Banque (Brussels, Belgium, 1983), under
cat. no. 10, p. 32 (n. 1)
Renaissance et Maniérisme dans les Ecoles du Nord:
Dessins des collections de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, exh.
cat., Ecole nationale superieure des beaux-arts (Paris,
1985), under cat. no. 43, p. 92
John Oliver Hand, J. R. Judson, and William W.
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Robinson, The Age of Bruegel: Netherlandish Drawings
in the Sixteenth Century, exh. cat., National Gallery of
Art/Cambridge University Press (Washington, D.C. and
Cambridge, England, 1986), under cat . no. 92, p. 241
(n. 1)
Karel G. Boon, The Netherlandish and German
Drawings of the XVth and XVIth Centuries of the Frits
Lugt Collection (Paris, France, 1992), vol. 1, under cat.
no. 156, pp. 282 and 284 (n. 7 and 8) (as Descent of the
Holy Spirit)
Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University
Art Museums Annual Report 2001-2002 (Cambridge,
MA, 2003), pp. 27-28, repr.
Suzanne Boorsch and John Marciari, Master Drawings
from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat., Yale
University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT, 2006), under
cat. no. 4, pp. 46-47 (n. 7 and 9)
William W. Robinson and Susan Anderson, Drawings
from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt:
Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art
Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA,
2016), p. 22; cat. no. 61, pp. 210-212, repr. p. 211;
watermark p. 379
Exhibition History
Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and
Rembrandt, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge,
05/21/2016 - 08/14/2016
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff
but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently
revised and enhanced. For more information please
contact the Division of European and American Art at
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[email protected]
Generated on February 20, 2017 at 11:21am
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