Sir Peter Paul RUBENS (Flemish, 1577-1640, After)
Presentation of Marie de Medici's Portrait to Henri IV
Watercolour over pencil on paper, unsigned
Late 18th-Early 19th Century
Image size: 13.75 x 10 cm (5½ x 4 in)
Framed size: 28.5 x 25 cm (11¼ x 9¾ in)
Priced at £2,600
See commentary below and Biography

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Draughtsmanship: The Height of Artistic Accomplishment

Draughtsmanship is the ability and skill to accurately portray a subject on a flat surface through the use of three-dimensional perspective in order to convey a sense of credible depth as seen in real life. It has been considered the height of artistic accomplishment since Classical times and has always represented the cornerstone of all Western art and architecture.

Whilst very few painted or drawn artworks from Ancient Greece and Rome have survived (with the exception of some frescoes such as those found at Pompeii and Herculaneum), classical buildings, monuments and sculpture still demonstrate the Ancients' mastery in creating a sense of harmony, proportion and balance. Draughtsmanship was a fundamental element in bringing this artistic tripartite 'to life'.

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the rise of the Eastern Roman Empire, a new 'two-dimensional' Byzantine style evolved and the draughtsmanship skills of Ancient Greece and Rome were simply 'lost' for the best part of 1,000 years.

It was not until the late 14thC that certain artists in central Italy began to re-consider the 'lost' legacy of Classical art. Giotto (Giotto di Bondone, c.1267-1337) is usually credited with the re-discovery of perspective (although he did not perfect its application), as seen in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua and the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi. His research into artistic 'realism' prompted the later 16thC biographer Giorgio Vasari to observe: "...[Giotto] made a decisive break with the...Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life…”.

Giotto was followed by other artists in what was to become the Early Renaissance, for whom the successful application of visual perspective in art became a priority: Paolo Uccello (Italian, 1397-1475) and Piero della Francesca (Italian, c.1415-1492) were two of the leading masters (with the skill of foreshortening and creating a sense of depth), as seen in the former's battle-scene painting The Battle of San Romano (1416, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), which is effectively an artistic exploration of perspective. Their major contributions were further developed by the 'Greats' of the Early and Late Renaissance, such as Donatello (c.1386-1466), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael (1483-1520) and Michelangelo (1475-1564). And the rest, as they say, is history.

As a result of this all-important re-discovery, skilled drawing emerged as a wholly legitimate form of artistic expression - alongside painting, sculpture and architecture – and artists across Europe started to create a whole new genre portraying every imaginable subject with great realism: for example Dürer's (Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471-1528) exquisite drawings of flora and fauna and Leonardo's remarkable life and technical drawings.

Thereafter the study of the style, technique and subject matter of Classical artists, which in due course was further developed by the Masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, became an essential requirement for talented and ambitious young European artists of the 17th-19th centuries. Many would travel abroad to study these works at first hand, such as Rubens (Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish, 1577-1640) who spent eight years studying in Italy (1600-1608) producing numerous near identical copies of Classical, Renaissance and early Baroque works.

Indeed the necessity of gaining such first-hand experience was considered so important that, in 1663, King Louis XIV of France established the Prix de Rome under the auspices of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) in Paris. It was an annual competition for promising French painters, sculptors and architects who were required to prove their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest. The awards were highly prized and so well regarded that they could establish a successful artistic career overnight. The winners received bursaries and the opportunity to travel to Italy and study the Old Masters at first hand at the expense of the King of France.

A beautiful example of such meticulous copying is seen in this exquisite watercolour over pencil drawing, Presentation of Marie de Medici's Portrait to Henri IV. Originally painted by Rubens between c.1622-1625, it depicts one of 24 monumental paintings commissioned by Marie de Medici (wife of Henri IV of France) for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, to depict her achievements in life. The work, along with the rest of the series, now hangs in the Musée de Louvre.

Click on the images to enlarge
Rubens' Presentation of Marie de Medici's Portrait to Henri IV Image size: 3.94 x 2.95 m (12 ft 9 in x 9 ft 7 in) © Musée du Louvre, Paris	After Rubens' Presentation of Marie de Medici's Portrait to Henri IV Image size: 13.75 x 10 cm (5½ x 4 in) © Albany Fine Art

Rubens reflected the scale of Marie de Medici's ambition in the physical scale of the Medici Cycle paintings which stand at almost 4 x 3 metres. This 'gem-like' copy is remarkable not only for its accuracy to the original (see gridded comparison above) but also as a fine example of this unknown artist's mathematical skill and precision in scaling down, by eye, such a monumental work. It is approximately 100th the size of the original (at 13.75 x 10 cm) - a feat made all the more remarkable when one considers that it was executed in the days before any reprographic copies or aids were available.

The work's date (late 18thC–early 19thC) indicates that it was painted directly from the original either as a Prix de Rome-type study or having been specifically commissioned by a patron who wished to own a miniature copy of one of Rubens' masterpieces.

Best wishes

CHRIS NOEL-JOHNSON
ALBANY FINE ART

T: +44 (0) 1367 870961
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E: chrisnj@albanyfineart.co.uk