The collections
The Museum Plantin-Moretus conserves a multiple collections. Old printed books and manuscripts, printing presses and tools, paintings, prints and drawings, furniture and paintings and several archives.
Beached fin whale at Egmond
Only two strandings of common fin whales were documented in the 16th century. This is one of them. This exceptional drawing has therefore rightly been recognized as a Flemish Top Masterpiece.
A Fish on Land
In a naïve drawing style, the anonymous artist presents an accurate depiction of the animal. Curious onlookers, including a group of monks, study the colossal creature. They measure the fin whale using poles. The dimensions were carefully recorded by the artist: the animal measured 75 feet in length and 38 feet in width.
The drawing was used as a model for the “common fin whale” in the Whale Book (1584) by the Scheveningen fisherman Adriaen Coenen. This manuscript, preserved in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, is one of the oldest manuscripts on whales and other sea creatures from Northwestern Europe. It is also included on the Flemish Top Masterpieces list.
Strandings of large fish have long attracted many onlookers. Most often, these involved sperm whales. They were frequently depicted in prints, such as the sperm whale that stranded in Scheveningen in 1598, portrayed by Jan Luyken.
More information about the print and a high-resolution image can be found in our catalogue >
ionbekend, Aangespoelde vinvis te Egmond (1547), Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerpen
Inscription on the drawing
Dit is de figuer van de Vysch diet t[eg]mont ist anghecom[en] op den vij dach in mey Jnt jaer ons heeren [MV] en[de] xlvij Jtem vant oghe off tot Die naes toe xiiij voet lanck Jtem vant oghe off tot die vynne toe vj voet
lanck. ende Die vyn was lanck vj voet.
Jtem van die een kaecke tot die andre toe xvj lanck. ende Die kaecken waren x voet breet
Jtem van syn naeuel toe Die start toe xxv voet lanck. ende die start was xvj voet breet
Jtem dese Vysch was lanck lxxv voet. elck voet van
elf Duim. ende was Dycke xxxviij voet.
Translation
This is the image of the fish that washed ashore at Egmond on 5 May 1547. From the eyes to the nose it measured 14 feet, and from the eyes to the fin 6 feet. The fin itself was 6 feet long. From one jaw to the other it measured 16 feet; the jaws were 10 feet wide. From the navel to the tail it measured 25 feet, and the tail was 16 feet wide. The fish was 75 feet long in total, each foot measuring 11 inches, and it was 38 feet in girth.
