- Museum number
- 1915,0823.1
- Description
-
Light horsemen fighting; at left a horse charging, its rider with raised sword and seen from behind, at right a wounded horse and rider, a third stationary in the mid-distance at centre. 1489
Pen and black ink
Verso: Head of a knight; eyes, nose and moustache visible beneath the negative space formed by a helmet
Pen and black ink
- Production date
- 1489
- Dimensions
-
Height: 198 millimetres
-
Width: 311 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This drawing was made during Dürer’s apprenticeship to Michel Wolgemut,. There is a loose debt to Wolgemut in the outline background landscape seen here and the horses are reminiscent of those of the Master of the Housebook, who worked in the Middle Rhineland during the 1470s and whose prints Dürer may have seen in the Wolgemut workshop. The main interest of the drawing is that it shows a young artist already capable of creating figures with volume and depth in pen and ink, and it also reveals an early, as yet naïve, interest in the representation of the horse, which was to culminate in Dürer’s superb engravings of the 'Large Horse' and the 'Small Horse' of 1505. The composition of the horsemen does not represent a single action, but shows different positions for dual combat. The head of a horseman on the verso was taken by Dodgson to be an improved version of the head of the wounded warrior. Dodgson considered that the date, cross and signature, which similarly occur on two other drawings of the same year, formerly at Bremen and in Berlin (Winkler, ‘Dürer’, i, nos. 16 and 18) were inscribed by Dürer for decorative effect. He considered it likely that the young artist was adopting momentarily in his career the use of the cross in imitation of the signature of Martin Schongauer.
Lit from J.Rowlands, 'Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-speaking regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum: the Fifteenth Century, and the Sixteenth Century by Artists born before 1530', London, BM Press, 1993, no. 117:
Lawrence Inventory, no. 20, case 4, drawer 2; Conway, p. 7, under no. n; Pauli, p. 24, no. 646; C. Dodgson, Burlington, xxviii, 1915, pp. 7ff., repr.; Lippmann, vi, p. 8, nos. 593-4, repr.; BM Guide, 1928, p. 18, no. 172; Schilling, Nürnberger Handz., p. 27, no. 11, repr.; Tietze, i, p. 2, nos. 6-7, repr.; Flechsig, Dürer, ii, pp. 381f.; Winkler, Dürer, i, pp. 18f, nos. 17, 20, repr.; Panofsky, p. 121, nos. 1221-2; Rowlands, Dürer, p. 2, no. 2; Strauss, i, pp. 34f., nos. 1489/5 and 6, repr.; BM Dürer and Holbein, pp. 60f., no. 35, repr. recto
Additional lit: G.Bartrum, 'Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy' exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 2002, no.22; B. Aikema et al, 'Dürer e il Rinascimento tra Germania e Italia' exhibition catalogue, Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2018, no. 1.4, p. 139.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1928 BM London, Guide Woodcuts, Drawings of A. Dürer, no. 172
1971 BM, Dürer no.2
1988 Jul-Oct, BM, Age of Dürer & Holbein, no. 35
1990 Apr-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D (no cat.)
2002/3 Dec-Mar, BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no 22
2018 21 Feb-24 Jun, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Albrecht Dürer and the Renaissance between Germany and Italy
- Acquisition date
- 1915
- Acquisition notes
- Dodgson noted in the register that the prices paid for 1915,0823.1 and 2 (two drawings by Dürer) were £18 16s 6d, and for 1915,0823.3 (by Vanvitelli) was 13s 6d.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1915,0823.1
