An Eyckian crucifixion explored: ten essays on a drawing

Abstract

In 2012 a hitherto unknown 'Eyckian' drawing of the Crucifixion was exhibited in The Road to Van Eyck in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Forty years earlier Wim Hofman, a psychiatrist and art collector from Groningen, had bought the drawing - as a reproduction - for just ten guilders at a local estate auction. He was convinced, however, and rightly so, that it was an original work of art, and he spent the rest of his life researching it. The Rotterdam museum acquired the drawing shortly after the exhibition. In this book leading specialists examine various aspects of this mysterious drawing - its discovery, the scientific and technical research into the materials, and the identity of the artist. Is it a work by Jan van Eyck himself or a workshop assistant, or is it a late fifteenth-century copy of a work by the famous progenitor of Netherlandish painting?

Contents

The discovery / Friso Lammertse -- Notes on the material aspects / Arie Wallert, Birgit Reissland, Luc Megens -- Two papers and a watermark / Albert J. Elen -- The use of goldpoint and silverpoint in the fifteenth century / An Van Camp -- Attribution, style and date / Fritz Koreny -- Reflections, models and possible function / Guido Messling -- Copying and beyond: the multiple functions of early Netherlandish drawing / Stephanie Buck -- Some Eyckian drawings and miniatures in the context of the drawing / Till-Holger Borchet -- The drawing and colour / Stephan Kemperdick -- The relationship between Rotterdam drawing and the New York painting / Maryan W. Ainsworth.