Putti in Clouds, Supporting a Globe

Jan Thomas|Anthony van Dyck

mid-17th century · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; framing lines in pen and brown ink · Drawings and Prints

Jan Thomas (also known as Jan Thomas van Yperen, or Ieperen) appears to have been a member of Rubens’s workshop in the 1630s before joining the Antwerp painter’s guild in 1639/1640 and, in the mid-1650s, leaving Flanders first for Germany and then for Vienna, where he continued his career as a history painter and portraitist. The present drawing of putti holding a globe of some kind—a common allegorical motif, usually expressive of triumph—is likely a study for a painting. Undulating contour lines of varied weight and thickness convey the fleshy but weightless bodies of the putti. Long strokes of pen and brush indicate rays of light.

Artist

Jan Thomas|Anthony van Dyck

Date

mid-17th century

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; framing lines in pen and brown ink

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014