Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to her Children as her Most Precious Ornaments

Crispijn van den Broeck|Gillis Mostaert the Elder|Lambert Lombard

mid-16th–late 16th century · Pen and brown ink, brush and blue wash · Drawings and Prints

In response to the matronly guest seated between two men who shows off a ring from her jewel box, Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, points to her children, returning from school, as her most precious ornaments. The choice of subject, taken from the first-century Roman writer Valerius Maximus (“Memorable doings and sayings”, introduction to book 4, chapter 4) and rarely depicted before, is indicative of the humanist culture that spread among Netherlandish artists in the course of the sixteenth century. This is especially true of Antwerp, where the author of the drawing, Gillis Mostaert, was active as a genre and landscape painter. The attribution is based on a stylistic comparison with one of the rare signed sheets by him in the Frits Lugt Collection, Paris. The purpose of the Museum's drawing is unknown, but the relatively cursory style indicates it was preparatory to another work, perhaps a painting.

Artist

Crispijn van den Broeck|Gillis Mostaert the Elder|Lambert Lombard

Date

mid-16th–late 16th century

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and blue wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Frits and Rita Markus Fund, 2015