- Museum number
- SL,5218.23
- Description
-
Head of St Joachim with separate studies of the right hands of St Joachim and St Joseph, after Dürer; head of the saint tilted and looking up to left, with full beard and moustache, wearing a fur-trimmed hat, separate studies of an open right hand and the back of a half-closed right hand below it
Watercolour and bodycolour
- Production date
- 1503-1510 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 120 millimetres
-
Width: 160 millimetres
- 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 Dawings at the British Museum: the Fifteenth Century,and the Sixteenth Century by Artists born before 1530', London, BM Press, 1993, no.265:
This and SL,5218.25 are copies in the same hand after two of the heads of saints, and the hand of a third saint, from the inner wings of Dürer's 'Jabach' altarpiece, probably of c. 1502/3 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich ; Anzelewsky, 'Dürer', pp. 176ff., nos. 74, 75, repr.). The pen-work, the handling of the wash and the choice of colours in the head of St Joachim demonstrate that this is the work of someone strongly influenced by Cranach. A further copy of two panels of the former outer wings of this altarpiece ( 'Job mocked by his wife' in Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, and the 'Piper and drummer' in Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Anzelewsky, 'Dürer', pp. 175f, nos. 72, 73, repr.) in Berlin was also drawn in Cranach's studio (Kupferstichkabinett, KdZ. 1282; Anzelewsky and Mielke, p. 18, no. 130, repr.). The connection with Cranach is supported by the idea advanced by modern scholars that the 'Jabach' altarpiece was commissioned by Cranach's patron, the Elector, Duke Friedrich the Wise of Saxony, and was originally in the Schlosskirche, Wittenberg, with other paintings commissioned by him from Dürer, the 'Mater Dolorosa' in Munich, Alte Pinakothek, and the 'Seven sorrows of the Virgin' in Dresden, Gemäldegalerie (Anzelewsky, 'Dürer', pp. 127ff., nos. 20-38V, repr.) These panels originally formed part of an altarpiece illustrating the joys of the Virgin, now only known to us through a series of drawn copies also made by a member of the Cranach school (Erlangen, Universitätsbibliothek which includes copies of all except one of the seven sorrows panels, see Bock, 'Erlangen', pp. 308ff., nos. 1300-10, repr.).'
Rowlands 1993
Lit. from Rowlands 1993: Hausmann, Naumann's Archiv, p. 36, no. 23; Hausmann, p. 107, no. 25; Winkler, K&S, p. 68, no. 58, repr.; Rowlands, Dürer, p. 48, no. 313.
Additional literature: B. Butts, 'Master Drawings', 2006, no.B18 (attributed to Cranach)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1971, BM, Dúrer no.313
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- SL,5218.23
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: C,07.23
