W warsztacie niderlandzkiego mistrza: holenderskie i flamadzkie rysunki z kolekcji Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie = In the workshop of a Netherlandish master : Dutch and Flemish drawings from the Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw

Abstract

In the Workshop of a Netherlandish Master' is the largest exhibition of Dutch and Flemish drawings from the museum' s collection ever presented. On display will be works spanning three hundred years, the oldest dating back to between the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with the most recent arising in the early 19th century. Among them, visitors will find drawings by artists such as Pieter (I) Coecke van Aelst, Maerten de Vos, Lodewijk Toeput, Jacques (II) de Gheyn, Pieter (II) Stevens, Peter Paul Rubens, Theodoor van Thulden, Jan van Noordt and Ferdinand Bol. Ordinarily stored in the Department of Prints and Drawings due to the frailty of the techniques and materials, these works will now make a rare appearance for a wider public. A section of the exhibition will be devoted to underdrawings -- preparatory sketches made directly on a primed panel or canvas and gradually covered with layers of paint during the painting process. Especially for the exhibition a number of 16th-century Netherlandish paintings from the collection of the National Museum have been analysed using infrared photography, revealing what lies beneath the layers of paint, with the results being presented in detail by three of the most interesting examples. Examination of underdrawing sheds light on an artist's initial vision, on the number of individuals involved in the production of a given work, and even on how a composition changed over time through alterations made at the behest of those who commissioned the work, or its subsequent owners. Visitors to the exhibition will have a rare chance to compare a painting's final composition with to-scale IR photography of the underdrawing.