RKD STUDIES

Van Tatenhove's group

Janno van Tatenhove discussed a group of eight drawings in the previously mentioned review of the Wolfgang Wegner's catalogue of Netherlandish drawings from the 15th to 18th centuries in Munich .¹ At the time the drawings were attributed to Anthonie Crussens (1621–1665/76), Guilliam van Nieulandt II (1584–1635), Pieter van der Borcht I (1530–c. 1611) and to Herman Breckerveld (1695/6–1673), but van Tatenhove argued that they were by the same hand.

As already mentioned, he rejected the attribution to Anthonie Crussens of the drawing in Munich [29].² Van Tatenhove recognised the hand of the Munich work in two drawings that were in the possession of art dealer Herbert E. Feist in New York in 1970 and had been attributed to van Nieulandt II at the time (present whereabouts unknown); an image of only one of these two could be traced [30].

Four sketches in the possession of art dealer William H. Schab in New York in 1972 (present whereabouts unknown), who had attributed the works to Pieter van der Borcht I, were also assigned by van Tatenhove to the same anonymous master [31-34].

The last drawing he counted among the group had been auctioned in 1973 as a work by Herman Breckerveld [35]. This landscape with figures and ruins was further questioned in the late 1990s and definitively rejected by Reinier van 't Zelfde in his 2007 monograph on the artist.³ Meanwhile, the drawing had come into the possession of art dealer Otto Naumann in New York, who had it auctioned in 2007 as a work by a 'Carlo Giorgio Quadro', as will be shown later.

29
Master of the Roman Songbook
Landscape with shepherds, castle in the background, mid-17th century
Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, inv./cat.nr. 19566

30
Master of the Roman Songbook
Landscape with harbour, castle and figures, mid 17th-century
New York City, art dealer Herbert E. Feist

Nine other drawings by the same hand

The same anonymous draftsman of the van Tatenhove group – here given to the Master of the Roman Songbook – was responsible for nine other drawings, two of which are in important museum collections. One is in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, where it is listed with an attribution to Pseudo-Breckerveld [36].⁴ The second drawing is kept in the Musée du Louvre and was already purchased in 1671 for the 'Cabinet du roi' as part of the collection of Everhard Jabach IV (1618-1695) [37].⁵ For a long time, no name had been associated with the drawing, but it was recently attributed to Dominique Barrière (c. 1618–1678).⁶

Seven other drawings given here to the Master of the Roman Songbook appeared on the art market in recent years under various attributions. One of these is the composition on parchment titled Figures on the Way to a Mediterranean Port, which was put up for sale by the Doyle auction house in New York in 2013 as a work attributed to Guilliam van Nieulandt II [38]. A group of four decorative designs for initial letters was auctioned in 2021 by Swann Galleries in New York under the name of Lieven Cruyl (1634–1720), to whom the series had already been attributed in 1954 [39-42].

36
Master of the Roman Songbook
Merry company in the open air, c. 1650
Berlin (city, Germany), Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, inv./cat.nr. KdZ 30295

The Forest Landscape with Shepherds [43] auctioned at Vanderkindere in Brussels in 2014 as a work that could possibly be by Paul Bril (1553/54–1626) or Marten de Cock (1578–1661) is also, in my opinion, by the hand of the Master of the Roman Songbook. The same goes for the Landscape with Shepherds and Buildings, which was auctioned at Sotheby's in Amsterdam in 2005 as a work from around 1600 by an anonymous Flemish artist [44].

The Roman Songbook

The 28 drawings in the manuscript in the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome, all illustrated in the introduction to this contribution, are the latest additions to the anonymous draughtsman's oeuvre. The quantity and quality of the drawings in this songbook, which represents the largest group of drawings by the artist, justify the provisory name ‘Master of the Roman Songbook’. To date, only musicologists have published studies on its musical content, although the context of its creation remains unclear.⁷ No previous attempt has been made to attribute the drawings to an artist. However, the current dating of the songbook, estimated between 1651 and 1655, is based on the interpretation of architectural details on vignette No 12, which shows a crowded Piazza Navona [12].⁸

12
Master of the Roman Songbook
View of Piazza Navona in Rome, 1652 or 1653
Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, inv./cat.nr. MS2478

Excluded from the group

Not by the hand of the Master of the Roman Songbook are the drawings attributed to Carlo Quadri (fl. Rome 17th century) when they were exhibited at Bernard Houthakker in Amsterdam, 1964 (nos. 59-65). These include three views of Rome, one of Orvieto, one of Civitavecchia, one of Genoa and the last of Cuneo.⁹ Only the first drawing bears Quadri's monogram: 'C. GQ', while on the reverse his name is spelled as: 'Carlo Giorgio Quadro' [45]. Art dealer Otto Naumann wrongly associated the hand of this work to the Landscape with Ruins in 1998,¹⁰ here attributed to the Master of the Roman Songbook.

Quadro's ‘Vedute della Chiesa di S: Pietro in Vaticano et del Palazzo Papale’ is a faithful copy of the extensive view published by Israël Silvestre (1621–1691) in 1652.¹¹ Although the Master of the Roman Songbook's compositions are sometimes inspired by prints, drawings and paintings by other artists, he or she never seems to have copied them completely. Moreover, Quadri’s views are rather stiff compared to the delicate softness of the drawings by the Master of the Roman Songbook.

45
Carlo Quadri after Israël Silvestre
View of St Peter's in Rome, c. 1690
Amsterdam, private collection Bernard Houthakker