Saint Willibrord
Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1566-1651)
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
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 24.2 × 16.1 cm (9 9/16 × 6 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
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 in the city of Utrecht. Bloemaert showed the saint in his clerical regalia; he is made especially imposing by being depicted as if from below.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
