watermark: bunch of grapes; cf. Heawood, nos. 2265 and 2283 (Paris: 1677 or 1735 or later)

…; from De Beer Fine Arts, London, fl. 215, with five other drawings, to the museum, 1955

Object number: RP-T-1955-143

This sheet and five other black chalk drawings of demons and fantastic creatures in the Rijksmuseum’s collection – inv. nos. RP-T-1955-144, RP-T-1955-145, RP-T-1955-146, RP-T-1955-147 and RP-T-1955-148 – probably came from the same sketchbook. They were long associated with the images of witchcraft and the Underworld, the so-called spookerijen (‘spooks’ or ‘haunted figures’) produced by Dutch artist Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1681). Belonging to the same group as the six in the museum’s collection are one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 61-162-3),¹¹W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 49-50, 77. and one in the collection of Clement C. Moore II, Chestertown, MD.²²J. Shoaf Turner, Rembrandt’s World: Dutch Drawings from the Clement C. Moore Collection, exh. cat. New York (Morgan Library & Museum) 2012, no. 35 (as Cornelis Saftleven); C. Mensing, ‘Beyond Callot: Reconsidering Eight “Spookerijen” Traditionally Attributed to Cornelis Saftleven’, Master Drawings LX (2022), no. 1, pp. 103, 106 (n. 5).

Although Saftleven expert Wolfgang Schulz recognized that the Metropolitan Museum drawing was derived from a motif in an etching by French artist Jacques Callot (1592-1635), the Temptation of St Anthony of 1635 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-6581³³J. Lieure, Jacques Callot, New York 1969, no. 1416 (III). – leading him to query that attribution – he overlooked the links between the same print and details in other Amsterdam sheets. The extent to which Callot’s figures are replicated varies in each drawing: some are more or less adopted in their entirety, while others reveal minor variations. For example, this Group of Imaginary Creatures, Turned to the Right was taken from the same group that appears on the lower left centre of Callot’s print. Each individual creature is slightly altered. The devil riding a three-headed dragon in the center now carries the woman holding a mirror, Circe (the representation of vanity), who in Callot’s version is seated on a large skeleton. Below her to the left is a little creature with a hat and a spear riding a dragon; in the drawing, his physiognomy is changed, he now holds a stick, and the dragon has been turned into a wolf. When comparing the drawings to Callot’s print, the artist most often changed the physical appearance of the creatures to make them look less monstrous and more animal-like.

A closer look at the series of eight works revealed moreover that two of the Amsterdam drawings (inv. nos. RP-T-1955-144 and RP-T-1955-147) are likely based on motifs from prints by Claude Gillot (1673-1722) that were not published until the early eighteenth century.⁴⁴B. Populus, Claude Gillot (1673-1722): Catalogue de l’oeuvre grave, Paris 1930, nos. 9-10.

An eighteenth-century date for all eight drawn copies is supported by the French and/or late watermarks in this and other sheets. None of the drawings can any longer be associated with Saftleven.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

M. Begeyn-Huisman, Cornelis Saftleven als tekenaar, Utrecht 1974 (MA diss., Utrecht University), p. 18, no. 22 (as Cornelis Saftleven); W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 49, 76, no. 22 (as Cornelis Saftleven); C. Mensing, ‘Beyond Callot: Reconsidering Eight “Spookerijen” Traditionally Attributed to Cornelis Saftleven’, Master Drawings LX (2022), no. 1, pp. 103-06, fig. 2