Arianna Fioratti Loreto

Grizzly Bear

2024

Follower of Zacharias Wagener (1614-1688) Tamanuâguasû (Giant Anteater) On Italian 17th or 18th-century paper, H. 28 x W. 43.5 cm ​The present painting is a copy after Wagener’s painting of the anteater, Tamanduá-bandeira, which is illustrated in his “Thier Buch”, with 109 drawings of Brazilian fish, birds and mammals, published in Amsterdam c. 1641, in German. ​ Zacharias Wagener, or Wagenaer in Dutch, (Dresden 1614 – Amsterdam 1668) was a real adventurer who became Opperhoofd on Deshima and Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in the service of the VOC. During the Thirty-Year War in Germany Wagener tried his luck in Amsterdam where he worked for the map-maker Willem Blaeu. In 1634 he joined the WIC and left for Dutch Brazil where he worked as writer and painter, together with Frans Post...

Attributed to Jan VAN DER STRAET, called Stradanus (Bruges, 1523 – Florence, 1605) Hunting Scene Pen and brown ink, brown wash and white heightening on prepared brown paper, 26 × 31 cm Provenance Private collection, France This striking and highly accomplished drawing depicts a wild boar hunt in a wooded landscape, animated by numerous figures and animals. The dramatic energy of the foreground, where hounds and hunters engage the beast, is heightened by the bold use of white heightening, which models the forms and enlivens the surface. The background, structured by tall trees and populated with additional hunting scenes, lends the composition a theatrical depth. Attributed to Jan van der Straet, known as Stradanus, this work belongs to the artistic context of Medicean Florence, where the artist developed an important body of hunting scenes intended for illustration and engraving. Influenced by Italian Renaissance models as well as his native Flemish culture, Stradanus excelled in dynamic storytelling and elegant draftsmanship. The drawing may have been a preparatory study for one of the compositions from the celebrated Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium series, engraved in Antwerp under the supervision of Philips Galle...