Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

SZILVIA BODNÁR: On the Draughtsmanship of Caspar Freisinger

only as Venus' attendant: his presence also alludes to the fact that his arrow accidentally inflicted the wound which inflamed Venus' passion for the son of Myrrha and Cinyras. In the upper sphere to the right is Venus' empty chariot drawn by swans, while above it the goddess appears with further mythological figures. The Italianate figurai types along with Adonis' crown of hair characteristically combed forward are closely linked to some other drawings by Freisinger, like the Ecce homo in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Venus and Mars (?) in London.

8 The former one docs not bear a date, but the early, subsequently altered way of writing of its monogram is similar to that of the Budapest signature, while the London sheet was also produced in 1589. The background scene of the Venus and Adonis betrays the impact of Titian's famed painting of the identical theme in the Prado, Madrid, which has survived in several replicas by the artist and his workshop.'' The figure of the goddess shown from the back, the movement of her leg, her arm embracing Adonis, and also the pose of her head and her hair-ornament all recall Titian's work. It remains a question whether Freisinger may have seen one of the versions of the painting during his trip to Italy, not documented but supposed on grounds of style, or may have known one of the engravings recording the composition, e. g. Martino Rota's sheet produced between 1564 and 1580 (fig. 3).

10 The third Budapest drawing, bearing number 15 on Thöne's list, is a composition also destined for an album amicorum like the self-portrait. It dates from the year of the artist's death, and its image is published here for the first time (fig. 4)." The allegorical female figure personifying Geometria is seated on a hexagonal stone cube in a wooded landscape. She draws on a piece of paper with a pair of compasses; next to her lies an open book with geometrical figures. w fa *%v#~ wL? ivwfovi p CASPAR FREISINGER. GEOMETRIA. BUDAPEST. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS