Crispijn van den Broeck (Mechelen 1524-1590 Antwerp)

When I.Q. van Regteren Altena acquired this drawing in 1929 he identified it as a work by van den Broek, despite an old attribution to the Florentine Bernardino Poccetti (1548-1612). Indeed, the technique of this drawing, with its strong hatching and subtle washes, is typical of drawings by van den Broeck. It is stylistically comparable to a drawing by him in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (22.819; F. Lugt, Musée du Louvre, Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord, maîtres des anciens Pays-Bas nés avant 1550, Paris, 1968, no. 384). An engraving inscribed 'CVB', by an unknown artist, may have been made after the present drawing (New Hollstein 129).

Fig. 1. Anonymous after van den Broeck, Last supper, engraving, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.