WHEN we talk of the great classical art of northern Europe, we tend to give precedence to the paintings of artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Rembrandt van Rijn. Less is said, however, about the drawings committed to paper (whether in ink or chalk) by these same masters.
However, this superb exhibition of works by an array of great, northern European artists testifies to the brilliance and importance of drawing as an art form. Hosted in the Royal Scottish Academy building by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS), the show boasts almost 50 works selected from the extraordinary collection held at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
There are here drawings that are preparations for paintings, drawings that are experiments in style, and drawings that were intended to stand alone as completed artworks in their own right. A sheet of studies titled Cattle At Pasture (c.1618-20), by the great Flemish artist Van Dyck, depicts the creatures in various sizes and positions, and in varying degrees of detail.
Like the same artist’s remarkable preparatory drawing Head And Forequarters Of A Grey Horse (c.1618), the most complete drawings of cattle achieve a remarkable sense both of the animal’s movement and its physicality. Here we are witness to a great master striving towards the essence of his art.
Another drawing of an animal – the Swiss-German artist Jost Amman’s Lion Mask (c.1570) – stands in stark contrast to the Van Dyck works. Notable for its use of a bold, red watercolour wash across the entire picture, the drawing is a highly stylised, almost heraldic image of a creature that the artist had almost certainly never seen, other than in representation.
Such contrasts – in style, in purpose and in visual effect – can be seen throughout this impressively diverse exhibition (which has been curated intelligently by the NGS’s northern European art specialist Tico Seifert). For instance, the serenity and affection of the German artist Albrecht Dürer’s The Virgin And Child With The Infant St John (c.1516-18) are a world away from the detailed, militaristic brutality of An Imaginary Battle Scene (c.1520-30) by Dürer’s contemporary and compatriot Ruprecht Heller.
Perhaps the most brutal image in the show is a picture depicting the public execution by the Catholic Counter-Reformation of Martin Aichinger and other leaders of a Lutheran peasant revolt in the Austrian city of Linz in 1636. The work of the Czech artist Wenceslaus Hollar, it provides a powerful insight into the ferocity of The Thirty Years’ War.
In addition to its stark and macabre representation of the simultaneous public executions of eight men, the drawing depicts the city’s leaders standing on a special platform built for their viewing pleasure. Hollar displays his virtuosity by drawing in literally thousands of people who are viewing the dreadful spectacle from positions around the square and from the roofs of adjacent buildings.
Indeed, if one looks very carefully one can see figures arranged behind every window of the multi-storey buildings at the back of the picture. It isn’t hard to imagine that, among the throng of onlookers, there are rebel Lutherans witnessing the demise of their leaders.
The picture is not only a highly accomplished drawing, but also an extraordinary work of politico-religious history. It is just one of many pictures – including an experiment in colour by Hans Holbein and a series of drawings that express something of the genius of Rembrandt – that make this a genuinely great exhibition.
Until February 23, 2025: nationalgalleries.org
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