Maerten de Vos (Antwerp 1532-1603)

This drawing served as the model, in reverse, for an engraving in a series of four illustrating the story of David and Abigail (1 Sam. 25: 23-35), published in 1584-1585 (Fig. 1; Hollstein 116). A picture, which shows the same subject but with compositional differences, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (inv. 53-10; A. Zweite, Marten de Vos als Maler, Berlin, 1980, no. 60, fig. 74). Zweite relates that picture to a painting signed and dated 1575 (ibid., no. 59, fig. 73) and suggests that the Rouen picture can likewise be dated to the mid 1570s. The similarities between the composition of the Rouen picture and the present sheet seem to indicate that De Vos might have had the composition of the painting in mind when he made the present design.

Fig. 1. Maerten de Vos, Abigail asking David's forgiveness, engraving.