MS 292 Sketches by F.Cleyn the younger

A collection of 163 sketches in pencil and chalk, or in pen and wash, by Francis Cleyn the younger (1625-50), of parts of bodies, draperies, small portraits, fish and animals, along with copies of or drafts for tapestries, all on separate sheets of paper pasted into a volume.  The volume itself is probably seventeenth century, of paper leaves in a parchment cover.  There are thirteen different tapestry designs - drafts, copies or possibly cartoons - with scenes from the Bible and from classical mythology, including the Judgement of Solomon, Jonah and the Whale, Perseus and Andromeda, and a sequence of five of Cupid, starting with the blinding of Cupid by Venus, and possibly continuing with the story of Cupid and Psyche.  Some of the drawings of tapestries are signed F.Clein f., probably for filius (but possibly for fecit), and the drawings were therefore probably executed in the 1640s.  Francis (or Franz) Cleyn the younger was the son of Francis Cleyn (1582-1658), decorative painter, illustrator and tapestry designer, who was chief designer of the Mortlake Tapestry Factory for Charles I and under the Commonwealth.

Date range:

1640s

Former references:

52-231465 and A1013

Size:

1 volume