- Museum number
- 1997,0712.15
- Description
-
The Rape of Europa, design for a glass-painting
Charcoal
- Production date
- 1503-1505 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 275 millimetres
-
Width: 275 millimetres (roundel)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from J. Rowlands, German Drawings from a Private Collection, BM exh. cat.1984, no. 22:
'After having been first attributed by Winkler to Dürer, most scholars have either rejected or doubted the attribution. Flechsig was one of the first to propose that this drawing was by Baldung but Schilling was the first not only to link this drawing with two other drawings of the same size, also designs for glass-paintings, but also to see all three as early works by Baldung done in Nuremberg when he was still working as an assistant of Dürer. These other two roundels are the 'Judith and Holofernes', regarded by Winkler as by Kulmbach, an attribution subsequently adhered to by Schade, and the very Düreresque 'Death at the Open-Air Gathering', which Winkler accepted as a drawing by Dürer. These roundel-designs were very probably executed in succession for the same client, and while Baldung still owes a certain debt to his master, Dürer, undoubtedly his own personality is already very much in evidence. This is particularly so in the present drawing in which the pose of Europa, although derived from Dürer, has been expressed in Baldung's more introspective language.'
Watermark: Bull's head with a serpent (cf. Briquet, 15391-5).
Lit: F. Winkler, 'Old Master Drawings', ii, 1927, p.16, pl. 17; M. Gebarowicz and H. Tietze, 'Die Duerer-Zeichnungen im Lubomirski Museum in Lemberg', Vienna, 1929, no. 9; E. Flechsig, 'Albrecht Dürer: sein Leben ...' ii, 1931, p.434; F. Winkler, 'Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers', i, 1936, no 216; E. Schilling, 'Otto Pächt Festschrift', 1972, pp. 196-8; R. Schilling (ed) 'Die von Edmund Schilling gesammelten Zeichnungen', published privately, Edgware, 1982, p.47, no.16 J. Rowlands 'German Drawings from a private collection', exh.cat London and Nuremberg, 1984, p.27, no.22; M. Bailey, 'Art Newspaper', no. 47, 1995, pp. 1 and 6; no.48, May 1995, p.5; no. 84, Sept.1998 p.4 (on Hitler connection); G.Bartrum, 'Apollo', Nov. cxlvi, 1997, pp.52f; A. Juzwenko. 'The Fate of the Lubomirski Dürers: recovering the Treasures of the Ossolinski National Institute', Wroclaw, 2004, p.31, p.58, no.25
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1984 Feb-Sept, London, Washington, Nuremberg, German Drawings, no.22
1997-8 Sept-Jan BM Schilling
- Acquisition date
- 1997
- Acquisition notes
- According to Rowlands,. "C.M." is stamped on the verso (not in Lugt).
This was one of 24 sheets drawn by Dürer and his school stolen by the Nazis in 1941 from the Lubomirski Museum in Lemberg (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, between 1918 and 1939 part of Poland, now Lviv, in the Ukraine). In 1945, this group of drawings ended up in the old salt mine at Alt Aussee (Austria) with hundreds of other art works which had been destined for Hitler's Museum at Linz. Prince Georg Lubomirski, a descendant of Prince Henryk Lubomirski (1777-1850) who had founded the museum in association with the Ossolinsky Institute in 1823 claimed that the drawings should be restituted to him, and after a lengthy consideration of the legalities of the issue, and in spite of other claims from the family, the Americans returned the drawings to him on 26 May 1950. This sheet was one of eight drawings purchased by Colnaghi from Prince Georg Lubomirski on 30 November, 1954. It was then acquired by Edmund Schilling from Colnaghi's in December, 1954 (either the 1st or the 6th - date is unclear in Colnaghi's records).
A response to the Polish claim for this and other Lubomirski drawings stolen by the Nazis and restituted to the family after the War, is in the Lubomirski file in P&D (November, 2005)
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1997,0712.15
