- Museum number
- SL,5218.94
- Description
-
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple; interior with arches and columns, the Virgin passes the Christ Child to the high priest, Joseph stands at right with a purse hanging from his belt, a kneeling woman holding a vessel at l, two further women standing behind the Virgin. 1490-94
Pen and black ink, strengthened with brown ink
- Production date
- 1492 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 298 millimetres
-
Width: 195 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- According to the inscription this was done by Dürer during his period of travel while he was training, known as the ‘Wanderjahre’.The drawing is an unfinished adaptation of a composition by Martin Schongauer that Dürer must have seen in the Schongauer studio at Colmar. A panel with a very similar composition formed part of the altarpiece of c. 1471-8 by Schongauer and his workshop for the Dominican church in Colmar ( now in the Musée d’Unterlinden) which was much admired during Schongauer’s life-time. A considerable number of early copies and variants of the composition have survived, including a good early drawn version in the Albertina, Vienna, and an early anonymous drawing in the British Museum (SL,5218.93; see Rowlands for further examples of repetitions of the composition). Like the drawings by Schongauer inscribed and owned by Dürer (see 1854,0628.23; 1884,0913.14), this is further proof of Dürer's admiration for Schongauer's work
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. 118:
Hausmann, Naumann's Archiv, p. 38, no. 94; Hausmann, p. 109, no. 80; W. v. Seidlitz, Repertorium, vi, 1883, p. 204; W. v. Seidlitz, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxviii, 1907, p. 7; J. Meder, Vienna Jahrbuch, xxx, 1912, p. 189; E. Römer, Prussian Jahrbuch, xlvii, 1926, p. 125, repr.; Lippmann, vi, p. 8, no. 598, repr.; BM Guide, 1928, p. 18, no. 171; Tietze, i, p. 86, no. w 2, repr.; Flechsig, Dürer, ii, pp. 386f.; Panofsky, ii, p. 63, no. 516; Winkler, Dürer, i, pp. 22ff, no. 21, repr.; Winzinger, Schongauer, p. 96, no. 72(b); Rupprich, iii, p. 443, no. 5b; Rowlands, Dürer, p. 3, no.5; Strauss, i, p.42, no. 1491/1; BM 'Dürer and Holbein', pp.61,64, no.36, repr.
Additional lit: G.Bartrum, 'Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy' exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, no. 26
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1928 BM London, Guide Woodcuts, Drawings of A. Dürer, no. 171
1971 BM, Dürer no.5
1988 Jul-Oct, BM, Age of Dürer & Holbein, no. 36
2002/3 Dec-Mar, BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no. 26
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- SL,5218.94
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: C,07.94