Page 167 - Pierre Durand Collection Including Chinese Art and Porcelain Sothebys Jan 27 2022

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TEODORO ARDEMANS (MADRID 1664-
1726)
Project for the portal of the Casa de la Villa
in Madrid
signed and inscribed ‘Theodoro Ardemana/ Scala
de Pies castellanos’ and with inscription ‘4rs’
(bottom center)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, gray and red wash,
on two pieces of paper
24º x 13¬ in. (61.6 x 34.5 cm)
$7,000-10,000
PROVENANCE:
with Galerie Kornfeld, 1978.
Lodewijk Arnold Houthakker (1924-2008),
Amsterdam (L. 3893); Christie’s, New York, 11
January 1994, lot 108.
EXHIBITED:
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, El Arte en la
corte de Felipe V, 2002-2003, pp. 270-271, no.
2.180, ill. (catalogue by J. M. Morán Turina).
LITERATURE:
P. Fuhring, Design into Art. Drawings for
Architecure and Ornament. The Lodewijk
Houthakker Collection, London, 1989, no. 834, ill.
‘International Auction Review’, Drawing, XV, no. 6,
p. 138.
Teodoro Ardemans was the son of a German
guard to King Philip V. As a young man he was
trained as a painter, but later worked mainly as
an architect. The present drawing, the study
for a portal for the Casa de la Villa in Madrid,
documents the first important commission
received in 1690-1691 by Ardemans soon after
being appointed municipal architect. The many
decorative elements, alluding to the royal family,
and the guard standing by the portal, show
Ardemans’ skill as a draftsman. Most sheets
known by the artist are projects for temporary
decorations, among them one in the British
Museum (inv. 1846,0509.175; see M.P. McDonald,
Renaissance to Goya. Prints and Drawings from
Spain, exhib. cat., London, British Museum, 2012,
pp. 189-192, ill.), and a drawing recently acquired
by the Museo Nacional del Prado.

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