- Museum number
- SL,5218.93
- Description
-
The Presentation in the Temple; interior of the temple with vaulted ceiling, the Virgin passing the infant Christ to the high priest, a woman kneeling nearby holding a dove, with a group of onlookers on either side
Pen and brown ink with indented lines
- Production date
- 1465-1491
- Dimensions
-
Height: 315 millimetres
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Width: 212 millimetres (top corners cut)
- $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. 18
'This is one of a number of early drawn copies made after a painting by Schongauer which has not survived, but which was evidently much admired. The best of these is that by the young Dürer, also in the BM collection (SL,5218.94). There is another good early copy in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 3024.D.29 ; 'Albertina Catalogue', iv, p. 9, no. 29, repr.), which is close in style to Schongauer's follower, the Monogrammist AG (compare with his engraving, ‘Christ on the Cross’ Lehrs, vi, p. 98, no. 4). Another contemporary copy, close in details to the Albertina drawing, was formerly in the collection of C. Fairfax Murray, (see P&D, 1918,1011.47, vol. v, 'Drawings of the Old Masters'.) This drawing came from the collection of John, Lord Somers (see 'Resta Inventory’, possibly K6) and was sold after Fairfax Murray's death (sale, Christie, 1920, 30 Jan. lot 149, bt with eight others "F. Sabin, 45 guineas"), the drawing was with Antiquariat Baer in Frankfurt in 1929 (Lagerkata-log, 750, no. 408), and with E. Baer in Paris in 1936 (cat. no. 1, no. 154). It appeared in a sale at Klipstein and Kornfeld, Bern, in 1960 (Auction 98, 16 June, lot 291) and subsequently was in a private collection in Munich and sold in 1964 (Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 18 June, lot 368). An vertical version of the subject is painted on the back of the left-hand wing of the Passion altarpiece, by Martin Schongauer and his workshop, from the Dominican church at Colmar and now in the Musée d'Unterlinden (see ‘Das Unterlinden Museum zu Colmar, kurzer Führer’, edited by L. Kübler, Colmar, 1957, pp. 12, 15, no. 30; Baum, ‘Schongauer’, p. 76, pl. 160). It is one of seven scenes from the ‘Life of the Virgin’ series which decorate the closed wings of this large altarpiece, for which payments are recorded between 1471 and 1478 (see Hans Rott, ‘Zeitschr. Oberrheins’, NF, xlv, 1929, pp. 51f). Another painting apparently derived from this composition which is mentioned in the literature is part of an altarpiece of 1503, formerly in the collection of the Freiherr von Bodeck-Ellgau at Schloss Heinfeld, Bavaria (sale, Cologne, Heberle, 1890, not 1882 as stated elsewhere, 10 Nov., lot 39, as by Hans Holbein the Elder). In a modified form the Schongauer composition is the source for the woodcut by Hans Wechtlin in ‘Das Leben Jesu Christi’, Strassburg, Johann Knoblouch, August 1508 (signature C5 verso). The same is true of a glass-painting in the parish church at Grossgründlach, from a large series of New Testament subjects, executed by the workshop of Veit Hirschvogel after designs by Dürer and his studio, Baldung, Hans von Kulmbach and others (see no. 421; ‘Meister um Dürer’, pp. 50ff., no. 5). These instances of repetitions of a notable composition by successive artists of varying talents well illustrate Schongauer's influence, which was second only to that of Rogier van der Weyden before Dürer's rise to fame.'
Lit from Rowlands 1993: Hausmann, Naumann's Archiv, p. 38, no. 93; Hausmann, p. 109, no. 79; Winzinger, Schongauer, pp. 96f, no. 72(c)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1971, BM, Dürer no.361
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- SL,5218.93
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: C,07.93