Lot 27: LAMBERT SUAVIUS LIÈGE CIRCA 1510 - 1562/7 FRANKFURT AM MAIN

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

measurements note
285 by 216mm

inscribed on the crucifix in brown ink: INRI

pen and brown ink and wash

NOTE

Lambert Zutman, generally known as Lambert Suavius, was one of the more accomplished painters active in Liège in the mid-16th century. Hardly any drawings can be attributed to him with any certainty, but comparison with those that are known - notably a large stained glass design in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. 14524), and a sheet of studies of three sybils, in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf (inv. FP4750) - and also with the composition and figure types seen in Suavius' paintings and prints, suggests that the present sheet should be considered one of his rare studies. Like many of Sauvius' paintings, this drawing is in some respects close in style to the work of Lambert Lombard, but exhibites a greater refinement and elegance, reflecting a more obvious influence of Italian art than is the case for Lambert Lombard.

In terms of biographical information, all that is known is that Suavius married in 1539, that dated paintings are known from between 1544 and 1562, and that he seems to have died in Frankfurt between 1574 and 1576. (For more information, see Fiamminghi a Roma 1508-1608, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, and Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1995, pp. 354-61.)