Pen and brown ink, framing lines in brown ink, on laid paper, 224 x 36 mm, unsigned. Under passe-partout, hinged by upper edge (sm. brown stain at left side, tiny tear at lower left edge)
Set in a wide river landscape, this drawing depicts a scene of the mythological story of Cephalus and Procris, shortly after the tragic death of Procris by one of Cephalus' arrows. The landscape is a collage of at least two etchings from the series 'Mythological and Biblical Landscapes' by Hieronymus Cock, after drawings by his brother Matthijs Cock. While the left side of the composition is a visual quotation of Cock's Procris and Cephalus (Hollstein 17), the right side refers to the landscape of Cock's etching of the Rest on the Flight to Egypt (Hollstein 11). The fortified village or castle at the upper left cannot be linked to any of Cock's etchings, but might equally refer to another printed source. The rendering style recalls the parallel hatchings and nuanced landscape compositions of Mathijs Cock, or at least an artist active in the direct environment of the Antwerp print enterprise of Hieronymus Cock
