Saint Willibrord
1625/30
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, with opaque white watercolor, over charcoal, on cream laid paper prepared with a blue wash
Dimensions
24.2 × 16.1 cm (9 9/16 × 6 3/8 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
204307
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
A prolific draftsman and influential figure for the Utrecht Caravaggisti, Abraham Bloemaert here portrayed the patron saint of the Netherlands and first Bishop of Utrecht, Saint Willibrord. Active circa 700, Willibrord is credited with introducing Christianity to present-day Netherlands and Belgium. In this and in the several other representations of this saint drawn by Bloemaert, Willibrord is shown holding a cathedral, a symbol of his pioneering efforts to establish a monastery and a cathedral...
About the Artist
Abraham Bloemaert · 1566–1651
Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651) was born in Gorinchem in the Dutch Republic, the son of architect Cornelis Bloemaert, and grew up in Utrecht after the family relocated there in 1575. His early artistic formation took him to Paris for three years in the early 1580s, where he studied with several masters before returning to the Northern Netherlands to pursue his career. He settled permanently in Utrec...