Hugo van Goes and the Netherlandish Drawings II

The proposed project aims to complete the project on "Hugo van der Goes and the early Netherlandish drawing with focus on design for stained glass paintings". The scheduled time of two years to research the 120 drawings, which are currently assigned to that group, has not been sufficient. Since new knowledge develops one`s eye for hitherto less regarded details, the on-site examination, partly done already, now needs to be checked and refined. Due to new technical possibilities and new insights provided by current restorations, the general information on numerous drawings increases and suggest further connections. Microscopic inspection leads to new discoveries, even concerning some well known sheets, published long ago. For instance the assumedly original format of the most famous drawing by Hugo van der Goes, Jacob and Rachel in Oxford, was reconstructed by examination of some small pieces of paper cut off from the edges and pasted in as patches in destroyed parts of the sheet. These patches prove that the height of the drawing was a minimum 7 cm greater than it is today. Another example is the discovery of hitherto unnoticed stylus traces in the drawing of the Evangelist Lucas in Rotterdam, which proves the direct use of that sheet for the engraving by Anton Wierix. Since similar tracings in the Albertina drawing after Van der Goes` lost painting Descent from the Cross match with the engraving by Hieronymus Wierix, this drawing was also undoubtedly used as a model in the Wierix family workshop. For such reasons many more drawings have had to be examined on-site than could have been anticipated before starting the project in March 2006; and others await similar examination. The increasing international exchange of information with some Flemish and German projects on painted glass roundels have brought additional new insights as well. Some of my findings will be presented in the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe at a conference on design for stained glass painting in September 2008. Above all, the proposed continuation of the earlier project shall be carried out in close consultation with Prof. Fritz Koreny. All findings are to be published in one volume of his series, Corpus of German and Netherlandish Drawings.

The proposed project aims to complete the project on "Hugo van der Goes and the early Netherlandish drawing with focus on design for stained glass paintings". The scheduled time of two years to research the 120 drawings, which are currently assigned to that group, has not been sufficient. Since new knowledge develops one`s eye for hitherto less regarded details, the on-site examination, partly done already, now needs to be checked and refined. Due to new technical possibilities and new insights provided by current restorations, the general information on numerous drawings increases and suggest further connections. Microscopic inspection leads to new discoveries, even concerning some well known sheets, published long ago. For instance the assumedly original format of the most famous drawing by Hugo van der Goes, Jacob and Rachel in Oxford, was reconstructed by examination of some small pieces of paper cut off from the edges and pasted in as patches in destroyed parts of the sheet. These patches prove that the height of the drawing was a minimum 7 cm greater than it is today. Another example is the discovery of hitherto unnoticed stylus traces in the drawing of the Evangelist Lucas in Rotterdam, which proves the direct use of that sheet for the engraving by Anton Wierix. Since similar tracings in the Albertina drawing after Van der Goes` lost painting Descent from the Cross match with the engraving by Hieronymus Wierix, this drawing was also undoubtedly used as a model in the Wierix family workshop. For such reasons many more drawings have had to be examined on-site than could have been anticipated before starting the project in March 2006; and others await similar examination. The increasing international exchange of information with some Flemish and German projects on painted glass roundels have brought additional new insights as well. Some of my findings will be presented in the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe at a conference on design for stained glass painting in September 2008. Above all, the proposed continuation of the earlier project shall be carried out in close consultation with Prof. Fritz Koreny. All findings are to be published in one volume of his series, Corpus of German and Netherlandish Drawings.