A newly-discovered early depiction of the Dodo (Aves: Columbidae: Raphus cucullatus) by Roelandt Savery, with a note on another previously unnoticed Savery Dodo

Abstract

The aim of this note is to bring to wider attention a painting, entitled The Temptation of Saint Anthony, by Roelandt Savery sold at Sotheby’s London on 7th December 2016. This work of c.1611–1613 includes a depiction of the head of a dodo (Raphus cucullatus), here argued to be probably his earliest depiction of the dodo and apparently one based upon a preserved specimen. The date of the other putatively early Savery dodo (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Berlin, Inv. No. 717a), cited as 1611 by some, is also discussed, and shown to be almost certainly a late work. In addition, another depiction of the dodo by Savery, in the National Museum of Warsaw, also previously unnoticed in the ornithological literature, is documented.

Keywords:

• Dodo
• Raphus cucullatus
• Roelandt Savery
• Rudolf II
• Mauritius
• cassowary

Acknowledgements

JCP thanks the following for their assistance with provenance: Cecilia Treves, Senior Cataloguer/Researcher: Old Master Paintings, Sotheby’s, London. Georgina Eliot, Cataloguer: Old Master Paintings, Sotheby’s, London. Martine Lambrechtsen, Deputy Director: Old Master Paintings, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam. Katya Pereira (Sotheby’s, London) for sending an extract from the printed auction catalogue (Sotheby’s’s 2016a). Arturo Valledor de Lozoya, for sending a copy of Rainald Grosshans’ letter. The current owner of the painting, who wishes to remain anonymous, for kindly providing the excellent photograph of the painting and giving permission to use it. Julian P. Hume and Leon Claessens, for reviewing the MS.

Notes

1. Oil on beechwood panel. 17.5 × 26.7 cm (7 × 10½ in.). The condition of the work was described as follows: ‘The beech wood panel is completely flat and not cradled. The painting is in an excellent state of preservation seemingly with every original detail intact […] There do not appear to be any mentionable restorations other than to an area in the lower right corner above the frogs. There are beginnings of two horizontal cracks at the left margin just below centre but they appear stable and not progressive. Sold in a carved and gilt wood frame’ (Sotheby’s 2016b). The reverse of the painting bears a stamp (with unreadable lettering), but no other markings (current owner, email to JCP, 12 December 2017). The painting has also been cleaned, with new varnish put on, since the auction (current owner, email to JCP, 28 December 2017).

2. Verzoeking van de heilige Antonius de Grote van Egypte, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Accession No.103.

3. Jacobus de Voragine, La Légende Dorée (Legenda aurea), France 1470. British Library, Yates Thompson 49, vol.1, fol.34.

4. A grylle is a fantastical hybrid creature combining human and animal elements (Muller 2012).

5. Landscape with the Temptation of Saint Anthony. Inv. No.2008.73. Oil on panel. 19 5/16 × 37 in. (48.7 × 94 cm). Signed and dated.

6. Illustration available online at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Schongauer.

7. Grünewald’s Saint Anthony is one panel of the Isenheim Altarpiece, now at the Musée d’Unterlinden in Colmar, Alsace (Brigstocke 2001).

8. Numerous reproductions of the last two artists can be found online at http://monsterbrains.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/cornelis-saftleven.html, and http://chushka.com/photopotato/?paged=42; various versions of the Temptation are at http://www.magneticstate.com/blogdept/the-many-temptations-of-st-anthony/ and https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Temptation_of_Saint_Anthony&oldid=43221612.

9. Savery depicts unicorns in several of his paintings, although at the time the unicorn was considered by many to be a real animal.

10. Orpheus in der Unterwelt. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie 973. Signed: ‘R. SAVERY’. Oil on alder. Dated to around 1610/1615. https://www.khm.at/de/object/375c71349b/.

11. The Temptation does not appear in the inventories of the Prague collection of 1621, 1685, 1718, 1737 or 1763 (Kotková 2013).

12. In: ‘Verzaichnuß Allerley Außzüg welche wegen derer Irer Kay: Mt etc. hochlöblichisten gedechtnis, verkhaufften, vnd in die Khunst Camer genohmenen sachen vnd arbeit welche aus dero eignen Cammer hetten sollen bezahlt werden, vnd noch zu bezahlen sein.’ http://documenta.rudolphina.org/Regesten/A1612-10-18-02675.xml.

13. M31, ‘c.1605’., who dated it to 1610–1612.

14. It has been suggested (Hume and Cheke 2004) that Savery may have studied the Fröschl bird (however, see below), and used this as the model for the Savery-Dahlem dodo. This was partly based on the then accepted date of Savery-Dahlem as 1611, but ASC now accepts a much later date for this painting (see below), and the bill measurement suggests it does not belong to the early narrow-billed group (see below).

15. There is a noticeable degree of correspondence between the Museum and Fröschl’s inventory, with several specimens appearing in both (inventory numbers in parentheses): hippopotamus (96), chameleon (122), scarlet ibis (148), ostrich (132), cassowary (131), Mauritian red rail (149), flamingo (157), crowned crane (185, 186), jackass penguin (158), salmon-crested cockatoo (160), Mauritian bat (161), birds of paradise (136–145), lion (84, 109, 115), parrots, tortoises and rhinoceros horns (various).

16. Fröschl’s description (‘weißlecht beschmutzter farb’; Bauer and Haupt 1976, p. 10) suggests that the specimen might have been preserved in this, or a similar, manner: ‘Beschmutzen, to besmut, dawb, blacken, foul, soil, slur, bespatter, besmear’ (Klausing 1783, p. 79); ‘Weißlicht, etwas weiß, whitish, somewhat white’ (Ibid., p. 570).

17. Measurements taken from tracings made from photographs/scans of the original images (JCP).

18. The more robust beak corresponds with a rostrum the shape of MNHN MAD 6530 (Janoo 1996), whereas the more slender beak better fits a rostrum the shape of that of OUM 11605 (e.g. Strickland and Melville 1848; Parish 2013).

19. Although there is no explicit listing of a separate dodo head in Fröschl’s inventory, one entry could possibly pertain to the dodo: ‘176. 1 frembder grosser vogelkopf, seind allein die gebain am schnabel zu vorderst mit schwartzen schaln überzogen, wie ein adlerschnabel [176. 1 foreign large bird head, only the bones on the beak towards the front are covered with black shell, as an eagle’s beak]’ (quoted in Bauer and Haupt 1976, p. 12). Alternatively, this could equally describe the head of another species, such as a cathartid vulture. Moreover, the Saint Anthony dodo's rhamphotheca is yellowish – although this may be a purely artistic feature.

20. Savery evidently had at least some access to the imperial menagerie, as engravings of some of his sketches are labelled ‘S. Cæs: Maiest. pictor R. Saueri delin:’ (lions, leopards, ass, pig, dogs: Van De Pas 1643). However, these do not include the dodo or cassowary, and it is herein considered unlikely that Savery saw these birds. Kaufmann (1988) also mentions sketches of a lion, horse and stag at Dresden, all made pre-1610, and another sketch by Savery, An Elephant Rubbing against a Tree, in the Albertina collection, Vienna, may also date from his Prague period. Rikken (2016) makes a strong case for Savery’s access to the menagerie, citing his use of birds and animals in natural poses which he must have seen in life.

21. Savery’s animal paintings are often referred to as Dierstuk (animal-piece) or Vogelstuk (bird-piece) depending on the dominant subjects. Many of Savery’s Dierstuk and Vogelstuk pictures have elevated rocky left and right sides with a low middleground, and often have tulips in the foreground and a brightly-lit water feature (a stream or pond) in the middle.

22. No.94 of Mai (1985). See Rikken (2016, fig.6.11).

23. See Parish (2018) for further details on Savery-Dahlem and also the Bestiaire (Museum Kaiser Rudolfs II) image.

24. A painting, depicting the dodo and made by one of the circle of Savery, in the Gemäldegalerie in Kassel, Germany (Savery-Kassel) was also considered by Parish (2013) to be of early date. However, the presence of a cassowary (contra Parish 2013) with a high casque and large wattles suggests a post-1614 date. This painting may date from the middle to latter seventeenth century; indeed, there was a wide range of animal species in menageries in The Netherlands towards the end of the seventeenth century (Pieters 1998). The dodo itself is unlike other depictions, but might be a variation of that of Clusius (1605), perhaps modified with reference to source material from Savery’s circle.

25. This painting also features a cassowary, although its casque is not developed and it looks very different from the cassowaries of Savery’s later pictures (and Savery-Dahlem) and resembles Sibmacher’s engraving of 1599 (see Parish 2013, fig.1.2) of the bird that was later acquired by Rudolf. As late as 1621 Jan Breughel the Elder was painting coloured-up but low-casque cassowaries, but these were evidently derived from material from his trip to Prague made in summer 1604 (Kolb 2005; Rikken 2016).

26. Image at: http://collectie.atlasvanstolk.nl/zoom_gb.asp?img=img/AVS/700px/04/AVS041448.jpg.

27. See https://www.mskgent.be/en/featured-item/landscape-ostrich#&gid=1&pid=1 for a colour image.

28. The dating to 1626 or thereafter is based on the fact that no Dutch ships are recorded as having visited Mauritius between 1617 and 1625 (Moree 1998) and there are no dodos depicted in Savery’s signed-and-dated paintings prior to 1626, including his bird-packed Vogelstuk picture of 1618 (KMSKA 866).

29. Although the work likely dates from c.1611 to 1613 the possibility that the work could date from as late as 1615 cannot be completely ruled out. Savery was still in imperial employ (at least some of the time) during this period, and the head might have been sourced from a Dutch collection.

30. National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) of Warsaw (MNW), 2nd Floor (Department: Zbiory Dawnej Sztuki Europejskiej). Inventory number: M.Ob.579 (182058). Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 174.5 × 212 cm (68.7 × 83.5 in). Catalogue No. VI.82 of Folga-Januszewska and Murawska-Muthesius (2006). Dated to c.1625 by Rikken (2014).

31. Housed in Dzików Castle in Tarnobrzeg.

32. http://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/dmuseion/docmetadata?id=21374&show_nav=true&full_screen=true.