- Museum number
- 1918,0615.4
- Description
-
The Virgin in the temple with a kneeling donor; interior with vaulted ceiling, the Virgin standing at left beneath an arch, her hands folded, two angels holding up drapery behind
Pen and black ink
- Production date
- 1440-1450 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 231 millimetres
-
Width: 142 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Summary of 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. 2:
'The style of this drawing suggests a link with Stefan Lochner, the leading painter in Cologne during the middle of the fifteenth century. The position of the Virgin before a curtain held by angels and of the kneeling female donor is reminiscent of Lochner's painting the 'Virgin with a violet', which was done c. 1440 (Cologne, Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum; Cologne, 'Spätgotik', p. 35, no. 1, repr.). The drawing may record a lost work by the master or a member of his studio, since the partial noting of details is more suggestive of a copy than of a preparatory study. The subject of the Virgin in the Temple comes from the Apocryphal Gospels. Representations of it derive from a votive image at one time in Milan Cathedral (see C. Dodgson, 'Woodcuts of the Fifteenth Century in the Ashmolean Museum', Oxford, Oxford, 1929, pp. 23ff). The Virgin is always shown in an attitude of devotion and is accompanied by angels; she wears a belted robe and her hair loose. The dress is often embroidered with ears of corn, emblems of fertility, and she also usually wears a collar of rays around her neck; neither of these is present in 1918,0615.4, yet in all other respects the Virgin conforms to traditional representations of the type. The number of versions of 'die Ährenmadonna', as the image is known, produced in the Rhineland during the fifteenth century bears witness to a flowering of the cult in this region (see A. Lohr, 'Die Gottesmutter, Marienbild in Rheinland und Westfälen', edited by L. Küppers, i, 1974, pp. 171ff.).'
Lit from Rowlands 1993: Parker, German Schools, p. 26, no. 4, repr.; H. Schrade, Wallraf Jahrhuch, v, 1928, pp. 57, 60, fig. 3; Stange, iii, 1938, pp. 106ff; BM Dürer and Holbein, p. 30, no. 10, repr.;
Furter lit: T.Falk, 'Burlington Magazine, May, 1995, p.325.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1988, July-Oct, BM, Age of Dürer & Holbein, no. 10
- Acquisition date
- 1918
- Acquisition notes
- Ambrose Poynter's mark (L.161) was on the verso of the old mount
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1918,0615.4
