Jacques Bellange

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Jacques Bellange

approximately 1575-1616

Hunter Orion Carrying Diana on His Shoulders

1613-16

Pen and brush and brown ink on paper; extraneous spots of red chalk and green paint.

13 3/4 x 7 7/8 inches (350 x 200 mm)

Bequest of John S. Thacher.

1971.8

Notes:

Watermark: none.
Bellange is one of the most distinctive artists of his era. From around 1606 until his death, he held sway at the ducal court in Nancy, designing costumes and spectacles. Few of his paintings survive, and he is best known through his roughly eighty drawings and forty-five prints, many of which depict elegantly dressed performers. Inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, this drawing shows the giant Orion, blinded and exiled for having raped Merope, the daughter of King Oenopion. On his shoulders sits the goddess Diana, who, moved by his punishment, helps him navigate through the forest. -- Exhibition Label, From "Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age"

Inscription:

Inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower right corner, "Belange."

Provenance:

Private collection, England; sale ("various properties"), London, Sotheby's, 31 July 1934, with lot 49 (as "Actaeon and Diana"); P. & D. Colnaghi and Co., London (stock number 7042, as "Adonis and Diana"); from whom purchased on 27 February 1935 by John S. Thacher (1904-1982), Washington, D.C.

Associated names:

Thacher, John S., former owner.

Bibliography:

Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Sixteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1969-1971. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, p. 108-109.
From Leonardo to Pollock: Master drawings from the Morgan Library. New York: Morgan Library, 2006, cat. no. 69, p. 146-147.

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