Jacques de Gheyn II (Antwerp 1565-1629 The Hague)

According to the inscriptions on the backing sheets these two drawings portray ‘Vannius’, which most likely refers to King Vannius who was the king of the Suevi tribe. Although little is known about this unusually mobile Germanic tribe it is thought that they occupied former Yugoslavia and Gaul, present day France, in the 1st Century A.D.

It is not known whence de Gheyn drew his inspiration for these portraits. De Gheyn made several drawings after antique coins (see, for example; The head of Athena, after a gold 'stater' of Alexander III - the Great; and The head of Juba I, king of Numidia, after a coin from the I.Q. van Regteren Altena Sale Part II, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 10 December 2014, lot 127, described in the catalogue as A bust of Roma; and A bust of a Forest God but subsequent to the appearance of the catalogue correctly identified by Richard Falkiner). However, no Suevian coins are known with a depiction of Vannius. It has been suggested that de Gheyn loosely based the present drawings on a representation of a Roman emperor from the 1st Century A.D.

We are grateful to Richard Falkiner for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.