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LEONAERT BRAMER
Dutch, 1596-1674
Judith in the Tent of Holofernes
Pen and ink and wash with white heightening.
14 3/4 x 12 1/8 in. (38 x 31 cm)
Acquired through the generosity of Gale, Ira, and Jennifer Drukier. 96.5
Leonaert Bramer is one of the most intriguing personalities in seventeenth-century
Dutch art. A predecessor of Vermeer in Delft-and perhaps his teacher-he
lived there and in Rome, where he was involved in several street brawls.
He had a wide-ranging interest in European literature and illustrated Virgil's
Aeneid, Till Uilenspiegel, and various Spanish novels, always
in a style as much Italian and French in origin as Dutch.
This large and beautifully preserved drawing exemplifies the Baroque not
only in its subject but also in its penmanship. We see here the Old Testament
heroine, Judith, with her revealing décolletage, confronting the
Assyrian general Holofernes, just before cutting off his head to save her
people; this is part of a long tradition in Dutch art showing the woman
as victor, triumphant over cruel usurers or lecherous teachers or wayward
husbands.
At the same time, the drawing embodies the Baroque in its fresh and open
pen- and brushwork, the spontaneity of its touch, the melodrama of its light
and shadow, its large size, and the very idea that such a work as this could
be considered "finished" and ready to sell.
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