楊·凡·德·施特雷 - 或稱施特達努

Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 27, 1974, lot 156, illus. 
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, January 13, 1989, lot 71
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

W. Bok van Kammen, 'Stradanus and the hunt', PhD thesis, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1977, pp. 336-7;
Alessandra Baroni Vannucci, Jan Van Der Straet detto Giovanni Stradano flandrus pictor et inventor, Milan, 1997, p. 251, under no. 325 

Laid down. A little surface abrasion and dirt, and one or two very minor losses, especially at edges. Several very light vertical creases towards upper right. General condition reasonably good and fresh. Sold in a modern wooden frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This lively and entertaining hunting scene belongs to the large series of drawings by Stradanus depicting activities relating to the hunt, works which constitute the main basis for his high reputation as an artist.  Comprising more than one hundred images depicting every conceivable way of hunting everything from quail to elephants, the series is a tour de force of ingenuity and invention.  Here we see the hunters using a ‘stalking cow’ as a mobile hide, allowing them to approach closer to their quarry.  In another drawing, formerly in the celebrated group of 25 hunting drawings by the artist in the Marcel Jeanson Collection, a hunter uses a similar ‘stalking cow’ to approach some partridge.¹

The origin of this unique series of images lay in a commission which Stradanus received while living in Florence during the 1560s, to produce a series of 28 tapestry designs with hunting subjects for the duke Cosimo de'Medici's villa at Poggio a Caiano. In 1567 he made a series of drawings recording the composition of these tapestries as preparatory studies for engravings. The first six of these prints were published by Hieronymous Cock in Antwerp in 1570, while the rest of the series was issued over the following decade, first by Cock's widow, and then by Philips Galle. This set of prints, entitled Venationes ferarum avium piscium..., proved so popular that Stradanus spent much of the last 25 years of his life executing further drawings of similar subjects, to be engraved and issued in ever larger series of prints. The number of plates included in the four known 'complete' editions of prints after his hunting scenes increased progressively from the original 28 to 44, then to 61, and finally to no fewer than 104.

This drawing is the preparatory study, in reverse, for plate 32 in the set (fig. 1).  A second drawing by Stradanus with much the same composition, but in the same direction as the print rather than in reverse, was also in the Jeanson collection, and is now in the Musée de la Chasse, Paris.²

1.  Sale, Monaco, Sotheby’s, March 1, 1987, lot 533
2.  Sale, Monaco, Sotheby’s, March 1, 1987, lot 531