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How to Succeed in Marketing Something Repulsive: A Recently Discovered Drawing of a Yogi by Willem Schellinks (1623– 1678)

  • Corinna Forberg and Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer
Published/Copyright: October 1, 2018
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Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte
From the journal Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Volume 81 Issue 3

Abstract

In seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, ascetics are a rare and remarkable subject, even more so when they are Hindu ascetics. The drawing of a yogi created by Rembrandt’s contemporary Willem Schellinks (1623– 1678) is unique for this reason. This article investigates the various possible sources of Schellinks’ drawing – an eyewitness report, the many travel accounts on South Asia, Indian miniatures, or the like – and discusses its place between the European tradition of exoticism and the iconography of saints, as well as its position in Schellinks’ own oeuvre. Far from resorting to exotic stereotypes, Schellinks enlarged the canon of Dutch painting by combining observed foreign objects with established exotic motifs.

We are greatly indebted to Hans Buijs, curator of the Fondation Custodia in Paris, who drew Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer’s attention to this drawing, and to Stijn Alsteens, former curator of the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and now the international head of the Department of Old Master Drawings at Christie’s, based in Paris, who provided us with photographs of the drawing, and to both of them for sharing their knowledge with us. In addition, we are grateful to Stuart Robson for his careful reading and his corrections of our English text.

  1. Photo Credits: 1, 2, 7, 9 © Public Domain. — 3, 4, 5 © Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. — 6 © SLUB Dresden/ Deutsche Fotothek. — 8 © National Collection of Qatar.

Published Online: 2018-10-01
Published in Print: 2018-10-01

© 2018 Corinna Forberg and Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer, published by De Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Debatte: The Summer of Art 2017 (continuation)
  3. A Summer of Contradictions: The Case of documenta 14
  4. Aufsätze
  5. An Early Medieval Golden Reliquary Cross from Zagórzyce, Świętokrzyskie voiv. (PL)
  6. ›Beziehungskästchen‹. Die Übersetzung europäischer Bildvorlagen am singhalesischen Elfenbeinkästchen des Berliner Museums für Asiatische Kunst
  7. How to Succeed in Marketing Something Repulsive: A Recently Discovered Drawing of a Yogi by Willem Schellinks (1623– 1678)
  8. Triumph der Phantasie und der Magnifizenz Überlegungen zur Rezeption Veroneses im venezianischen Settecento
  9. Ornamente transzendental und empirisch. Zu Kants Kritik der Urteilskraft und zu den Tätowierungen der »Neuseeländer«
  10. Miszellen
  11. La datation du choeur de l’église de Vaucelles reproduit en plan par Villard de Honnecourt
  12. Images Without Objects and Referents?
  13. Rezensionen
  14. Art and Optics in the Hereford Map. An English Mappa Mundi
  15. Adolph Menzel. Auf der Suche nach der Wirklichkeit
  16. Autopsie. Deutschsprachige Fotobücher 1918 bis 1945
https://doi.org/10.1515/ZKG-2018-0026

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Debatte: The Summer of Art 2017 (continuation)
  3. A Summer of Contradictions: The Case of documenta 14
  4. Aufsätze
  5. An Early Medieval Golden Reliquary Cross from Zagórzyce, Świętokrzyskie voiv. (PL)
  6. ›Beziehungskästchen‹. Die Übersetzung europäischer Bildvorlagen am singhalesischen Elfenbeinkästchen des Berliner Museums für Asiatische Kunst
  7. How to Succeed in Marketing Something Repulsive: A Recently Discovered Drawing of a Yogi by Willem Schellinks (1623– 1678)
  8. Triumph der Phantasie und der Magnifizenz Überlegungen zur Rezeption Veroneses im venezianischen Settecento
  9. Ornamente transzendental und empirisch. Zu Kants Kritik der Urteilskraft und zu den Tätowierungen der »Neuseeländer«
  10. Miszellen
  11. La datation du choeur de l’église de Vaucelles reproduit en plan par Villard de Honnecourt
  12. Images Without Objects and Referents?
  13. Rezensionen
  14. Art and Optics in the Hereford Map. An English Mappa Mundi
  15. Adolph Menzel. Auf der Suche nach der Wirklichkeit
  16. Autopsie. Deutschsprachige Fotobücher 1918 bis 1945
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