Unknown Burgundian artist

This finely executed drawing depicts Jupiter, the mythical Roman god, identified by the lightning bolts in his right hand, the eagle appearing over his left shoulder, and the fallen Titan partially visible beneath the god’s ornate robes. Jupiter here symbolically represents his eponymous planet, as the inscription around the five-pointed star at lower center indicates. On the verso of this sheet, the unidentified Burgundian artist portrayed Venus. Further drawings in Dresden by the same hand feature Mercury, Mars, and Saturn, the gods corresponding with the other planets then known. The style of the drawings and the figure types employed suggest a dating of around 1420–30, a notably early date for a drawing of this type.

Unknown Burgundian artist
The Planet Jupiter (recto) and The Planet Venus (verso), ca. 1420–30
Pen and brown ink
Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, INV. NO. C 579
© Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Photo: Herbert Boswank