- Museum number
- SL,5218.51
- Description
-
Portrait of Ulrich Starck; almost half-length in profile to right, wearing fur-trimmed coat. 1527
Black chalk
- Production date
- 1527
- Dimensions
-
Height: 407 millimetres
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Width: 297 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- This portrait is the last major work by Dürer that can be definitely dated, and the latest in a large number of black chalk or charcoal portrait drawings which made up such a substantial part of his output. Ulrich Starck was a wealthy Nuremberg patrician, who married Katharina Imhoff in 1513. A medal by Mathes Gebel produced in the same year as this drawing was certainly influenced by Dürer's design, although it is unclear that Dürer intended his drawing to be used for a medal (see M.Mende, 'Münzen, Medaillen, Plaketten von Dürer, auf Dürer, nach Dürer', Nuremberg, 1983, no. 47). Its large size indicates that it was perhaps designed for a woodcut similar to that of Ulrich Varnbühler of 1522 (Meder 256).
Watermark: crowned letter L within a crowned shield, with a petal above and a letter b suspended below (similar to Piccard 28632, Frankfurt am Main, 1520). The same watermark is seen in Rowlands 247 and 252.
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. 253: Waagen, Treasures, i, p. 230, no. 51; Hausmann, Naumann's Archiv, p. 37, no. 51; Hausmann, p. 108, no. 50; Ephrussi, p. 328, n. i; Lippmann, part xxiii, p. 18, no. 296, repr.; A. Hagelstange, Mitt. Kunst, 1905, pp. 25f., repr.; C. Dodgson, Burlington, vii, 1905, p. 157, repr.; Conway, p. 49, no. 924; Pauli, p. 43, no. 1199; BM Guide, 1928, p. 29, no. 286; Flechsig, Dürer, ii, p.333; Tietze, iii, pp. 64f., no. 977, repr.; Winkler, Dürer, iv, p. 89, no. 919, repr.; Panofsky, ii, p. 108, no. 1041; Winkler, Leben, p. 343; Rowlands, Dürer, p. 47, no. 308; BM Portrait Drawings, p. 10, no. 19; Strauss, iv, p. 2352, no. 1527/1, repr.; Mende, Dürer-Medaillen, pp. 93, 232, under no. 47, repr.; BM Dürer and Holbein, pp. 112f., no. 83, repr.
Additional lit: G.Bartrum, 'Dürer and his Legacy' exhibition catalogue, London, BM, 2002, no. 169; B. Aikema et al, 'Dürer e il Rinascimento tra Germania e Italia' exhibition catalogue, Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2018, no. 4.7, p. 254.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1928 BM London, Guide Woodcuts, Drawings of A. Dürer, no. 286
1960 BM, Sloane Drawings, (no cat.)
1971 BM, Dürer, no.308
1974 Jul-Dec, BM, Portrait Drawings, no.19
1988 Jul-Oct, BM, Age of Dürer & Holbein, no.83
2002/3 Dec-Mar, BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no. 169
2018 21 Feb-24 Jun, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Albrecht Dürer and the Renaissance between Germany and Italy
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- SL,5218.51
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: C,07.51
