Bernard van Orley: Count Otto II of Nassau and his Wife Adelheid van Vianen (1530-35)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

A drawing made by the Flemish artist Bernard van Orley (1487/91-1541). In the 1520s Count Henry III of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz (1483 – 1538) commissioned eight tapestry designs from Bernard van Orley. These eight designs glorified the ancestors of count Henry. Unfortunately the tapestries were destroyed in a fire in 1760 but six designs such as this have survived. This drawing shows an ancestor of count Henry: Count Otto II of Nassau-Dillenburg (1305-1351) and his wife Adelheid of Vianden (1310-1376). Both of them are shown on horseback with a landscape and a castle in the background. Drawing from around 1530-1535.