DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0438
Division A.—School of Nuremberg.—Springinklee.
395
[245 x 179.] Good impression, cut rather close. Part of Mary’s hair has been
tinted with waier-colour and washed.
Presented by W. Mitchell, Esq., 1895.
On&of the rarest woodcuts of the school of Diirer. Mr. A. Ii. Iiuth of Biddesden,
Andover, possesses another impression, and a third, later than the preseut impressiou,
is in the Muuich Cabinet. Mr. Mitchell attributed the woodcut to Baldung, and the
reproduction in Hirth-Muther, “ Meisterholzschnitte,” no. 78, is placed among the
Baldung subjects, though the design is expressly attributed in the text (p. xviii) to
Diirer himself. The woodcut is certainly founded ou a water-eolour drawing, with
Diirer’s monogram and the date 1514, whioh was also fo merly in the Mitchell collec-
tion (Ephrussi, p. 173, Lippmann, no. 78), but was acquired by the Germanic Museum,
Nuremberg, for £475, when that collection was disperst din 1899.1 Some good judges,
however, are unwilling to recognise Diirer’s own handiwork in this and certain other
water-colour drawings produced in his studio, and are more inclined to attribute them
to Springinklee. Whatever may be said of tke original drawing, tliere can be no doubt
that Springinklee transferred the design to the woodbloek, and there is no reason for
introducing the name of Baldung. The woodcut reverses the action of the drawing and
adds the whole of the landscape, for the group of three persons in the drawing is
surrounded merely by a small patch of grass. In addition to the features of St. Anne
—which are thoroughly ckaraeteristic of Springinklee, as Dr. W. Schmidt was the
first to point out2—significant details are to be found in the landscape, which is in
close agreement with certain backgrounds in the Hortulus Animae (especially in the
first set) and in the historical subjects designed by Springinklee for the Triumphal
Arch.
52. ST. SEBALD IN A NICHE. 1518.
B. vii, 180, 21. H. 2024. P. iii, 180, 1S3.
St. Sebald, holding in his r. hand a model of the church that bears
his name at ISTuremberg, and in his 1. hand a rosarj, purse, and pilgrim’s
staff, stands, facing three-quarters 1., on the threshold of a semi-circular
round-headed niche, flanked by two columns surmounted by stone balls.
A basket of fruit is suspended over his head from a ring, which also sup-
ports the ends of two wreaths. At the other ends of the latter hang
four shields, bearing the royal arms of Denmark and France 1. and the
twofold arms of the town of Nuremberg r. The back of the niche is
hung with a brocaded stuff of a pattern similar to that mentioned on
p. 330. The date 1518 is on the wall under the arms of Denmark.
No signature.
[302 x 212.] Good, old impressiou, but after a crack in the block 76 mm. from the
1. side at the top and 83 mm. at the bottom. Watermark, shield with a sickle (?) upon
it, surmounted by a crown. Margin 3-4 mm.
Presented by W. Mitckell, Esq., 1895.
An early impression in the Hutli collection has the followinginscription at thefoot :
REGIA PROGENIES COLIT QVAM NORICA TELLVS
GENTEM CONSERVES SANCTE SEBAI.DE TVAM.
No writer except Passavaut (no. 183) has definitely attribuled this St. Sebald to Diirer.
Betberg calls it “ one of the most excellent prints produced in Diirer’s workshop, which
he would doubtless have signed had it been his own.” Dr. W. Schmidt3 goes so far as
to attribute it to Wolf Traut, with whom it appears to me to have nothing in common.
It certainly stands very near to Diirer, and to Diirer’s work of this very period; the
general design as well as the drawing of the features and beard, the cloak, the curtain,
the basket of fruit, the ceiling, even the shape of the figures in the date, cannot faiL to
remind us of the master. At the same time there are many weak points in the drawing,
especially of the architecture, and just these weaknesses are eminently characteristic of
Springinklee. The false perspective of the round arch is precisely similar to what we
fitid in many woodcuts of the second Hortulus Animae, and notably in tlie frontispiece
3 Chronilc f. vervielf. Kunst, iv, 10,
3 Rejpcrloriiim, xvi, 308.
1 Rejiertorium, xiii, 387.
395
[245 x 179.] Good impression, cut rather close. Part of Mary’s hair has been
tinted with waier-colour and washed.
Presented by W. Mitchell, Esq., 1895.
On&of the rarest woodcuts of the school of Diirer. Mr. A. Ii. Iiuth of Biddesden,
Andover, possesses another impression, and a third, later than the preseut impressiou,
is in the Muuich Cabinet. Mr. Mitchell attributed the woodcut to Baldung, and the
reproduction in Hirth-Muther, “ Meisterholzschnitte,” no. 78, is placed among the
Baldung subjects, though the design is expressly attributed in the text (p. xviii) to
Diirer himself. The woodcut is certainly founded ou a water-eolour drawing, with
Diirer’s monogram and the date 1514, whioh was also fo merly in the Mitchell collec-
tion (Ephrussi, p. 173, Lippmann, no. 78), but was acquired by the Germanic Museum,
Nuremberg, for £475, when that collection was disperst din 1899.1 Some good judges,
however, are unwilling to recognise Diirer’s own handiwork in this and certain other
water-colour drawings produced in his studio, and are more inclined to attribute them
to Springinklee. Whatever may be said of tke original drawing, tliere can be no doubt
that Springinklee transferred the design to the woodbloek, and there is no reason for
introducing the name of Baldung. The woodcut reverses the action of the drawing and
adds the whole of the landscape, for the group of three persons in the drawing is
surrounded merely by a small patch of grass. In addition to the features of St. Anne
—which are thoroughly ckaraeteristic of Springinklee, as Dr. W. Schmidt was the
first to point out2—significant details are to be found in the landscape, which is in
close agreement with certain backgrounds in the Hortulus Animae (especially in the
first set) and in the historical subjects designed by Springinklee for the Triumphal
Arch.
52. ST. SEBALD IN A NICHE. 1518.
B. vii, 180, 21. H. 2024. P. iii, 180, 1S3.
St. Sebald, holding in his r. hand a model of the church that bears
his name at ISTuremberg, and in his 1. hand a rosarj, purse, and pilgrim’s
staff, stands, facing three-quarters 1., on the threshold of a semi-circular
round-headed niche, flanked by two columns surmounted by stone balls.
A basket of fruit is suspended over his head from a ring, which also sup-
ports the ends of two wreaths. At the other ends of the latter hang
four shields, bearing the royal arms of Denmark and France 1. and the
twofold arms of the town of Nuremberg r. The back of the niche is
hung with a brocaded stuff of a pattern similar to that mentioned on
p. 330. The date 1518 is on the wall under the arms of Denmark.
No signature.
[302 x 212.] Good, old impressiou, but after a crack in the block 76 mm. from the
1. side at the top and 83 mm. at the bottom. Watermark, shield with a sickle (?) upon
it, surmounted by a crown. Margin 3-4 mm.
Presented by W. Mitckell, Esq., 1895.
An early impression in the Hutli collection has the followinginscription at thefoot :
REGIA PROGENIES COLIT QVAM NORICA TELLVS
GENTEM CONSERVES SANCTE SEBAI.DE TVAM.
No writer except Passavaut (no. 183) has definitely attribuled this St. Sebald to Diirer.
Betberg calls it “ one of the most excellent prints produced in Diirer’s workshop, which
he would doubtless have signed had it been his own.” Dr. W. Schmidt3 goes so far as
to attribute it to Wolf Traut, with whom it appears to me to have nothing in common.
It certainly stands very near to Diirer, and to Diirer’s work of this very period; the
general design as well as the drawing of the features and beard, the cloak, the curtain,
the basket of fruit, the ceiling, even the shape of the figures in the date, cannot faiL to
remind us of the master. At the same time there are many weak points in the drawing,
especially of the architecture, and just these weaknesses are eminently characteristic of
Springinklee. The false perspective of the round arch is precisely similar to what we
fitid in many woodcuts of the second Hortulus Animae, and notably in tlie frontispiece
3 Chronilc f. vervielf. Kunst, iv, 10,
3 Rejpcrloriiim, xvi, 308.
1 Rejiertorium, xiii, 387.