Saturday, November 4, 2017

European Watercolors - 17th century

Roelant Savery
Mountainous Landscape
1606-07
watercolor
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

The Philosophic Flight

Now that these wings to speed my wish ascend,
     The more I feel vast air beneath my feet,
     The more toward boundless air on pinions fleet,
     Spurning the earth, soaring to heaven, I tend:
Nor makes them stoop their flight the direful end
     Of Daedal's son; but upward still they beat,
     What life the while with this death could compete,
     If dead to earth at last I must descend?
My own heart's voice in the void air I hear,
     Where wilt thou bear me, O rash man! Recall
     Thy daring will!  This boldness waits on fear!
Dread not, I answer, that tremendous fall:
     Strike through the clouds, and smile when death is near,
     If death so glorious be our doom at all!

 sonnet by Giordano Bruno (burned alive in public as an unrepentant heretic at Rome on February 17, 1600), translated by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)

Federico Barocci
Landscape with Bank and Trees
before 1612
watercolor
British Museum

Jacob Hoefnagel
Orpheus charming the Animals
1613
watercolor and gouache on vellum
Morgan Library, New York

Hendrick Avercamp
 Two Young Officers greeting each other on the Ice
ca. 1620
watercolor
Royal Collection, Windsor

Abraham Bloemaert
Gateway to a Town
ca. 1625-35
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Philip Fruytiers
Four Children of Peter Paul Rubens with Maids
1638-39
watercolor
Royal Collection, Windsor

Domenichino
Classical Landscape with Five Fishermen
before 1641
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

Pierre Patel
Landscape with Bridge
ca. 1650
watercolor
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Pietro Santi-Bartoli
Copy after Ancient Roman Wall-decoration
ca. 1660-90
watercolor
Royal Collection, Windsor

Gerrit Battem
Figures on a Frozen Canal
1670s
watercolor
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Giacomo Torelli
Stage-set with Sea-front viewed through Rocky Cavern
before 1678
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

Giacinto Calandrucci
Composition-study for Ceiling Decoration
1680
watercolor
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Lorenzo Baldi
Presentation Drawing for Epitaph
1680s
watercolor
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Anthonie Waterloo
Wooded River Landscape
before 1690
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York