De hemelpoort
1708 - 1710
Medium
pen
Dimensions
119; 107
About this artwork
pen in bruin, penseel in grijs
Art Historical Context
Jan Luyken’s *De hemelpoort* (“The Gate of Heaven”) is a delicate devotional drawing created between 1708 and 1710, near the end of the artist’s life. A prominent Dutch poet, engraver, and illustrator, Luyken turned increasingly toward spiritual subjects after his conversion to a pietistic form of Mennonitism. The small sheet—only 107 × 119 mm—probably served as a design for one of the many religious emblem books or biblical publications that circulated in the early eighteenth-century Netherlands. Executed in brown ink with gray wash, the drawing demonstrates Luyken’s economical yet expressiv...
About the Artist
Jan Luyken
Dutch, Amsterdam 1649–1712 Amsterdam