Jan van Orley

The present sheet is very close in style and execution to a drawing by Jan van Orley, representing the same subject, formerly in the Adrien Collection.¹ It is fascinating to see the emergence of the present sheet in terms of its relationship to the Adrien drawing and also its role and function in the overall project to which it is most probably connected.

Both drawings relate fairly closely to the composition of a print of the same subject (fig. 1), one of a series of twenty-eight depictions of scenes from the Life of Christ, all designed by Jan van Orley, fourteen of which (including the print of the Visitation) were engraved by the artist himself, and the other fourteen by his younger brother, Richard.²  

These drawings are by no means direct studies for the print, which is smaller in size, vertical rather than horizontal in format, in the same direction, and differing in many compositional details, but the general conception of how the subject should be depicted is none the less similar enough to conclude that both drawings may have been made as some kind of initial idea for the composition. The print series seems to have evolved considerably as it was being created: some images are horizontal, while others are vertical, and the numberings on the plates suggest that there were originally intended to be thirty-two images in the series, even though only twenty-eight were ever actually realised. 

Like his illustrious ancestor, Bernard van Orley, Jan van Orley’s reputation rests to a considerable extent on his work as a designer of tapestries, an art form that retained considerable popularity well into the 18^th century.³ But whereas the earlier Brussels tapestry tradition was closely linked with the artistic production and legacy of Italy, and in particular with Raphael, later years saw much closer ties with France.

1. Sale, Paris, Sotheby's, Dessins de La Collection Christian et Isabelle Adrien, 22 March 2018, lot 72

2. F.W.H. Hollstein, et al., Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1400-1700, Amsterdam 1947-2007, vol. XIV, 1956, p. 191, nos. 3-30

3. See Tapestry in the Baroque. Threads of Splendour, cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Madrid, Palacio Real, 2007, pp. 449-50, 452, 466-70, 483-8