A Drawing by Arnout Mytens

Author(s): Otto Benesch

Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 93, No. 584 (Nov., 1951), pp. 351-353
Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
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THE ARCA OF ST DOMINIC: A HYPOTHESIS

archangeli - and for St Thomas they are quasi principes angeli,

quia respectu Angelorum sunt principes, respectu vero Principatuum

sunt angeli. It is reasonable to suppose that the corresponding

caryatids from the back of the Arca were three further

or volume of the gospels, the absence of which is noted by

Gnudi from the liturgical implements shown on the inner
supports. By a fortunate coincidence there is, in the Louvre,
an angel holding a book (Fig. 20),24 which Swarzenski alone

has had the good sense to link firmly with the London
figures.25 Supposed in the catalogue to have decorated

l'angle d'un edicule, peut-etre d'une chaire,26 and regarded by

Toesca as the frammento forse di un pergamo,27 this

angel must originally have served as one of the corner caryatids at the back of the sarcophagus. How much more noble,

how much more appropriate a scheme was this than the

sacra processione . . . completata da frati domenicani ploranti,

nell'abito dell'ordine, non partecipanti al rito, postulated in
Gnudi's book.28

Deductions from style and iconography are valueless if they

are not corroborated by the evidence of size and form.
Regarding the latter, it may be noted that the base of the
Archangel Gabriel is similar in shape to the corners of the base
of the sarcophagus. Regarding the former, dimensions speak

for themselves; the Bargello caryatid, the St Michael, the

Archangel Gabriel, and the Louvre Faith are respectively 98,

97, 97'5, and 95 centimetres high.

24 No. 569. Ex-coll. Victor Gay.
25 SWARZENSKI: Bulletin of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, XLVI [1948], p. I .

Fig. A. Conjectural reconstruction of the Arca of St Dominic.

figures representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, and that the

figure of Faith, no doubt an angel vested like that on the

pulpit in the Baptistry at Pisa, would have carried the missal

'Hitherto only two other works are known which suggest a special relation to
out groups: the remarkable pair of St Michael and Gabriel from an unknown
pulpit in London, and the figure of an angel . . . in the Louvre.'
26 Musee National du Louvre: Catalogue des Sculptures du Moyen-Age et de la
Renaissance [I922], p. 70.
" TOESCA: Storia dell'Arte Italiana - i: II Medioevo [1927], p. 913 n.
28 GNUDI: op. cit., p. 105.

OTTO BENESCH

A Drawing by Arnout Mytens

MR A. E. POPHAM, in his Catalogue of the Italian Drawings at
Windsor Castle, has provided us with one of the most valuable
and useful manuals on the little-known art of drawing of the

late Renaissance or Mannerism. It would be unjustified to

expect from the author and his work a final judgment on the
numerous problems raised by that priceless collection. Quite
a number of Mr Popham's attributions have to be considered

as valuable suggestions awaiting definite proof. To venture

other names in many cases than those proposed by Mr
Popham, who bases his own attributions on connoisseurship
alone, will be of little avail, especially in that particular field.
However, I am able to give one example where the attribution
of a drawing can be proved by reference to a painting con-

nected with it.

A large drawing representing The Mocking of Christ (536 by

405 mm, pen and brown ink and wash on a pink-tinted

very end of the XVIth or beginning of the XVIIth century,

and more specifically to Cigoli'. The dating of the drawing is
correct, as well as the assumption that it originated in Italy.
It is, however, the work of an extremely rare Northern artist:
the Fleming Arnout Mytens from Brussels.
The Mocking of Christ (Fig. 26) by Arnout Mytens (I541I602) is one of the few known paintings' of that extremely
interesting Italo-Flemish painter of late Mannerism, whose

biography has been recounted by Carel van Mander at

length. A contemporary of El Greco, he lived and worked in

Rome, Brussels, and the Hague, and again in the South, in

Naples ( 581-94), Aquila in the Abruzzi and in Rome where

he died. Mytens began work on the Mocking in Naples, took

it in an unfinished state to Aquila and completed it in Rome.

Later, it became the property of Mytens' son-in-law, the

painter Barent van Somer in Amsterdam. Finally, it came

ground, heightened with white), listed as No. 236, was given

by Mr Popham to Cigoli (Fig. 24): 'the style of this elabo-

rately finished modello-like drawing points to Florence at the

1T. H. FOKKER: Werke niederldndischer Meister in den Kirche Italiens, The

Hague [I93I], pp. 46, 47, 69, 70, 92 f., I02.

35I

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A DRAWING BY ARNOUT MYTENS

to the church of Aker, in Sweden,2 and thence to the National

Museum in Stockholm.

Although the painting follows closely the drawing in its

general arrangement, there are some remarkable differences,
which prove that the drawing is actually a modello preparatory to the painting. This becomes most clear in the architecture. Instead of the two columns guarded by two men, we see
in the drawing a short, vaulted corridor, a kind of archway
into which a lateral door opens. The archway leads into the

darkness which almost completely swallows up the guards,

whereas in the finished painting the darkness is relieved by
moonlight. The left part of the drawing holds nothing but
empty space, whilst in the painting this area was filled by
figures standing in the middle distance, intended to create a
balance to the bystanders on the right. Also the group of

less frequently that the Netherlanders are incapable of painting good figures. He has given them sufficient reason to be

silent on that point or at any rate to speak of it with

more reserve.'

The Mocking of Christ has usually been considered one of

the earliest examples of Caravaggism in Flemish painting.3
The contrast of light and shade is increased in the painting;
it is heavy, and lacks the wonderful gradations and transitions

of the drawing, in which most of the shadows are lit by

reflected light. This indeed connects the painting with the
style of Caravaggio. Yet we have to remember that the
painting was already begun in Naples where he was last
documented in I594. Whether or not Caravaggio had already
by that time begun on his St Matthew cycle in S. Luigi dei
Francesi in Rome,4 is uncertain, but in any case Caravaggio

figures itself is in the drawing less well balanced. The kneeling

man torturing Christ by blowing a horn into His ear, bends

was not in a position to influence the mature master working

forward more aggressively in the drawing. The line which

Caravaggio's, or a parallel to it.

The question, whether the artist should be considered as a

runs across his back to the raised arm of the man pressing his
crown of thorns on to Christ's head, forms more of an uninterrupted, wavy diagonal, originating in the kneeling man's
left heel. The raised fist of the man tying the Saviour's hands
in the painting, performs the action of beating in the drawing.
This wave-like motion, expressing aggressiveness, and sweeping from the left over Christ, is so persistent that it imperils
the balance of the tall man seen from the back. His attitude,
almost that of a mountain climber, gives him so precarious a
foothold that he almost seems to be toppling over towards the
right, and the axis of his body is visibly inclined from the
vertical. In the painting, Mytens provided a balance not only
for this figure but also for the entire group. Yet the lack of
balance in the drawing makes artistic sense; it heightens the

disquieting and oppressive sensation of restlessness, and of

insecurity. It is more 'mannerist' in the stylistic sense, being

more appropriate to the particular subject. It enhances the

expression of pain and torture. Christ's gaze heavenwards

(Fig. 25) is intended to convey His withdrawal from the evil

being performed. He seems to be imploring help from above,
from those regions where the ghostly chandelier hangs high
up in the sombre vault out of reach of torturers and victim
alike.

in Naples. Mytens' style was either an anticipation of

true precursor or as a parallel to Caravaggio cannot be

definitely decided at the present stage of research. But another Mocking of Christ has to be mentioned: that painted by
Rubens for the church of S. Maria in Gerusalemme in Rome

in the year that Mytens died. It is now in the Hospital at

Grasse, and was published by Denis Mahon from an excellent

recent photograph.5 It has so many features in common with

Mytens' painting that I would not exclude the possibility

that Rubens knew the painting, which was then in Rome.
The sources of the style of Mytens' remarkable painting
are to be found further north. They are actually the same as

those that set Caravaggio on his revolutionary course: the

painters of the Veneto. The Venetian influence upon the

Northern late Mannerists is still underrated, although I laid

special emphasis on it in my Preface to the catalogue of the
Netherlandish drawings in the Albertina.6 In our particular

case, it was Titian to whom the painter owed the greatest

debt. Mytens certainly knew the Martyrdom of St Lawrence in

the church of the Gesuiti at Venice with its dramatic conflict

of figures flaring up from different sources of light. Still more

closely related seems to me the second version of that composition, now in the Escorial, where we see a similar archway
as in the drawing, and soldiers at the entrance lit by moon-

The changes which the composition underwent in the

painting correspond with the monumental requirements of
an altarpiece, but in the process the drama of the drawn

light. Although the original of the latter painting could

hardly have been known to Mytens, knowledge of it was

version loses some of its intensity.

spread through engravings.

Van Mander admired the work greatly and wrote of it as

follows: 'It is painted in an admirably grand style and in a

different manner than is usual among Netherlanders - a
proof that he was an excellent master, to whom we are
indebted, if he succeeds in persuading the Italians to assert
2 OLOF GRANBERG: Inventaire gne'ral des trisors d'art... en Suede, n, Stock-

holm [1912], p. 32 f., No. 135, pl. 6. A replica on copper (23 x 18 in.) which
appears to be about contemporary with the Stockholm picture was sold at
Christie's on October 6, I950 (io8).

3R. OLDENBOURG: Die flimische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Berlin [1918],
p. 89.

4 In spite of attempts made by DR JACOB HESS (THE BURLINGTON

MAGAZINE [June 1951], p. I86 ff.) and DENIS MAHON (THE BURLING-

TON MAGAZINE [July I951], p. 223 ff., later modified in the same Magazine
[September 1951], p. 286 ff.) to date the St Matthew cycle later than has been
general in the recent past, the matter still remains unsettled.

6 DENIS MAHON: loc. cit. [July I95I], Fig. 20.

6 Die Zeichnungen der Niederlindischen Schulen des XV. und XVI. Jahrhunderts,

Vienna [1928], p. xii.

352

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24. The Mocking of

Christ. here Attributed to Arn-

out Mytens. Pen

and brown ink

andwashonpinktinted ground,
heightened with
white, 53.6 by

40.5 cm. (Royal

Library, Wind-

sor Castle.)

Reproduced by
gracious permission

of H.M. TheKing.

25. Head of Christ. Detail of Fig. 26.

26. The Mocking of Christ, by Arnout Mytens. Canvas. (National Muse

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