Lot 267: A sheet of studies of butterflies, a caterpiller, a dragonfly and a grasshopper, spiders, flies, an ormer and other shells, drawing implements and a book, partly after Joris Hoefnagel

Circle of Jacob Hoefnagel (Antwerp 1573-1632) A sheet of studies of butterflies, a caterpiller, a dragonfly and a grasshopper, spiders, flies, an ormer and other shells, drawing implements and a book, partly after Joris Hoefnagel pen and brown ink, on vellum, triple brown ink framing lines 5 3/8 x 9¾ in. (13.6 x 24.7 cm.)

13.6 x 24.7 cm.

This drawing assembles motifs from two different sources into a new, carefully arranged composition. The insects are taken from a drawing on vellum by Jacob Hoefnagel in the Municipal Print Room in Antwerp (Antwerp Drawings and Prints: 16th-17th Centuries: from the collection of the Antwerp Municipal Print Room and the Plantin-Moretus Museum, exhib. cat., Washington D.C., Smithsonian Institution, and other locations, 1976, no. 19). Other elements, such as the book, compasses and caterpillar, are copied from the Allegory for Abraham Ortelius by Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), also in the Print Room, Antwerp (The Soul of the Master, exhib. cat., Antwerp, Museum Plantin Moretus, 2010, no. 35).