DAVID JORIS (BRUGES [?] CIRCA 1501-1556 BÂLE) - photo 1

DAVID JORIS (BRUGES [?] CIRCA 1501-1556 BÂLE)

Lot 22
18.05.2022 14:30UTC +01:00
Classic
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€ 126 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationFrance, Paris
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ID 761418
Lot 22 | DAVID JORIS (BRUGES [?] CIRCA 1501-1556 BÂLE)
Estimate value
€ 40 000 – 60 000
DAVID JORIS (BRUGES [?] CIRCA 1501-1556 BÂLE)David combattant les vicesmonogrammé ‘.di.’ et avec inscription ‘Johann Baldung Gruen/ geb: 1473 [?] + 1545/ Original Federzeichnung.’ (en bas à droite)plume et encre brune et rouge, traits d’encadrement à la plume et encre brune, filigrane écu couronné avec fleur de lys et bandes diagonales, filigrane armoiries de Troyes avec lettres ‘IP’ (repéré sur du papier utilisé à Arnhem, daté 1537-1539)42 x 28,7 cm (16 1⁄2 x 11 1⁄4 in.) Post lot text DAVID JORIS, DAVID FIGHTING THE VICES, PEN AND BROWN AND RED INK, FRAMING LINES WITH PEN AND BROWN INK, WATERMARK COAT OF ARMS OF TROYES WITH LETTERS 'IP'Considered by some ‘one on the most lurid figures in the whole history of art’ (F. Thöne, Old Master Drawings, XIII, no. 51, October 1938, p. 43), David Joris is best remembered as a religious leader, who came to prominence as an Anabaptist leader in the Netherlands in the second half of the 1530s (G.K. Waite, David Joris and Dutch Anabaptism, 1524-1543, Waterloo, Ontario, 1990). He was baptised in Delft in 1534 by Obbe Philips, one of the early leaders of the Anabaptist movement, of which Joris himself because a major figure soon after. His views brought him, his family and his followers harsh prosecution, and forced him to lead an itinerary life – in Antwerp and East Frisia, among others, until he decided to move to Basle in 1544. There, he pretended to be a Netherlandish nobleman of wealth, taking the name Jan van Brugge, or ‘John of Bruges’. His lavish life was financed by his followers in Basle and the Netherlands, and he continued his activity as a prolific author, writing in Dutch and publishing anonymously. Only after his death his true identity appears to have been revealed to the population of Basle, he was declared a heretic, and his corpse was exhumed and burned.Joris, the son of a member of a chamber of rhetoric, was also artistically inclined, and received a training as a glass painter. A good number of designs for stained glass windows, varying greatly in style, have been attributed to him, but at best, their attribution is based on later inscriptions (see, among others, H. Koegler, ‘Einiges über David Joris als Künstler’, Oeffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel. Jahresberichte, new series, XXV-XXVII, 1928-1930, pp. 157-201; K.G. Boon, ‘De glasschilder David Joris, een exponent van het doperse geloof. Zijn kunst en invloed op Dirck Crabeth’, Academia analecta. Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, IL, 1988, no. 1, pp.117-137; and A. Mensger, Lichtgestalten. Zeichnungen und Glasgemälde von Holbein bis Ringler, exhib. cat., Basle, Kunstmuseum Basel, 2020, nos. 49-57). The only previously known works of truly secure attribution by Joris are two full-page woodcut designs, illustrating Joris’s treatise from 1542, Twonder boeck (Koegler, op. cit., pp. 173-177, ill.). To these can now be added the present drawing, which at lower right bears the same monogram found on the woodcuts, and which is closely related in style. This is in particular true of the allegorical woodcut depicting a nude man, with its comparable facial features, feet, etc.. The general manner is akin to that of Jan Swart van Groningen (before 1500-after 1560), whose influence Joris may have underwent, either directly or indirectly (T.B. Husband, The Luminous Image. Painted Glass Roundels in the Lowlands, 1480-1560, exhib. cat., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995, pp. 166-167, nos. 91-96, ill.). Stylistic connections with the work of Dirck Crabeth (1510/1520?-1574) can also be noted (ibid., pp. 198-199, nos. 117-128, ill.), but his activity appears to have been later than that of Joris.As with the two woodcuts, the meaning of the newly discovered drawing is far from easy to explain. Its date, inscribed on the arch at upper left, situates it in the year in which, in the month of December, Joris started to experience visions (Waite, op. cit., pp. 68-72). In these, he saw himself as the ‘third David’ (the first David being the Israelite king, and the second Christ). Recognizable by the poet’s wreath and lyre at his foot denoting the psalmist, and the sling in his right hand, this third David, i.e. Joris himself, is the heroic figure at right. He is at the same time chained and fighting three allegorical figures, who can be interpreted as the temptations of power (the prostrate figure in the foreground with the globe), violence (the soldier-like man at left), and the flesh (the alluring, scantily dressed woman aiming her javelin at David). The skull in their midst makes abundantly clear they, like death, need to be conquered. The man in modern clothes who has entered the arch on which the drawing is dated seems to have gained that exalted state, and offers – or receives? – plates from hands emerging from a cloud leading to a heart pierced by an arrow which may represent God’s love.This highly personal, almost ludicrous iconography is held together by the superior quality of execution and by the curious choice for red ink, exclusively used for the figures’ carnation. The background is taken up by a beautifully detailed vista of classical inspiration, in which the influence of Jan van Scorel (1495-1562) can be discerned; compare, for instance, his drawing of the tower of Babel in the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris (inv. 5275; see K.G. Boon, The Netherlandish and German Drawings of the XVth and XVIth Centuries of the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris 1992, I, no. 182, III, pl. 44). Both in originality and quality, the drawing leaves far behind that of the other drawings attributed to Joris. It is unlikely that the composition was intended as a stained-glass design, as its to many blasphemous nature would have required more discretion. Rather, the sheet may have played a role in Joris’s activity as a teacher and sect leader, as did his numerous books, hymns and pamphlets. In the light of the discovery of the drawing, one can regret that so many more of these publications have come down to us than works of art by this fascinating figure.
Applied technique:Ball pen
Medium:Acrylic glass, Paper, Plastic
Art style:Old Masters
Place of origin:Belgium, Western Europe, Europe
Auction house category:All other types of objects, Drawings
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