Ludwig Schongauer

The Fürstlichen Hohenzollern collection, Sigmaringen;
From whom acquired circa 1890 by Professor Friedrich Sarre, Berlin and Potsdam;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Spätmittelalter am Oberrhein, 29 September 2001 - 3 February 2002, no. 139a.

F. Winkler, "A Suabian Painter of about 1480", in The Art Quarterly, vol. 19, 1956, pp. 255-263, reproduced p. 257, fig. 1 (as a Swabian Master, circa 1480, under the influence of Martin Schongauer);
B. Bushart, "Studien zu altschwäbischen Malerei.  Ergänzungen und Berichtigen zu Alfred Stanges Deutsche Malerei der Gotik...", in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 22, 1959, pp. 139-143 (as Ludwig Schongauer);
B. Bushart (ed.), Hans Holbein der Ältere und die Kunst der Spätgotik, exhibition catalogue, Augsburg 1965, pp. 127-8 (as Ludwig Schongauer);
A. Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer, vol. 2, Munich 1970, no. 606 (as Workshop of Ludwig Schongauer);
W. Beeh (ed.), Deutsche Malerei um 1260 bis 1550 im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1990, p. 184, under no. 49 (here and in all subsequent literature as Ludwig Schongauer);
C. Heck & E. Moench-Scherer, Catalogue général des peintures du Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar, 1991, pp. 307-314, under no. 451;
D. Müller, "Zur Ludwig Schongauer Problematik", in Le beau Martin, acts of the colloquium, Musée d'Unterlinden, 30 Sept, 1-2 Oct 1991, Colmar 1991, p. 312;
Martin Schongauer, Maître de la gravure rhenane vers 1450-1491, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1991/2, p. 64;
C. Heck, in The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 28, p. 154;
A. Moraht-Fromm, in D. Lüdke (ed.), Spätmittelalter am Oberrhein, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart 2001, pp. 35-6; 
A. Mensger, in D. Lüdke (ed.), Spätmittelalter am Oberrhein, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart 2001, pp. 246-7,  no. 139a, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a pine panel with a horizontal grain and three joints. Old worm damage has affected only certain strands in the wood, and has been recently treated. Recent woodwork has also supported the back, where there was a tendency for each section of the panel to curve. The lower joint has evidently recently been consolidated, leaving a line of slightly blanched paint unrestored. There is one slanting concavity in the upper centre, with a crack in the panel behind, although the paint surface remains apparently miraculously undisturbed. There is uneven and slightly raised paint in a band along the base edge, about an inch wide. This appears to consist perhaps largely of retouched filling. However the main body of the painting appears to have achieved a secure and stable equilibrium, with the careful recent support behind and in a controlled environment. Apart from the recent consolidation of the lower joint through the robe of the Madonna - which has affected past retouching of the joint leaving a distractingly matt passage, as mentioned above - the painting has been finely restored some time ago. There is a minute craquelure throughout and carefully integrated if quite wide bands of retouching along the joints as well as at the edges in many areas, including the red cushions on the left, the ceiling between the rafters and much of the foreground paving. The angel's red drapery has also been strengthened with many little touches. The Madonna's drapery has fewer little retouches and appears to be in good condition. Her halo has been regilded and the crest of her hair strengthened, as has the nose of the angel. The many finely integrated, minute strengthening touches visible under ultra violet, seem not necessarily to indicate particular damage or wear, although clearly the base edge has certainly suffered in the past, as perhaps some of the other edges and the joints may have done to some extent. However the underlying condition of the main core areas of the painting appears rather beautifully preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Ludwig Schongauer was the younger brother of the more illustrious Martin.  He was much more prolific as a painter than his sibling, though he also drew and engraved.  Although he probably trained in Colmar, and returned there in 1491 following his brother's death, he made his name in Ulm, where he married and became a citizen in 1479.  Later, in 1486, he was in Augsburg.  This panel is from a putative Marienaltar painted circa 1480 (thus presumably in Ulm), of which four further constituent panels are known.  One, a Visitation now in Darmstadt, was also exhibited in Karlsruhe.¹  The other three are an Adoration of the Kings in Darmstadt, a Circumcision in Colmar, and a Nativity in Philadelphia.²  The present panel and those in Philadelphia and Colmar (then in the Louvre) were first connected with each other by Friedrich Winkler, who placed them correctly in Ulm, circa 1480, and acknowledged their debt to Martin Schongauer, but in discussing possible authors, failed to mention Martin's brother Ludwig, perhaps because he was unaware of Ludwig's activity in Ulm.³  It was left to Bruno Bushart to make this step, and to link them convincingly with Ludwig Schongauer's output in Swabia.⁴  Mensger sees the panels of this Marienaltar as depicting the Joys of Mary.⁵

Professor Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945; see provenance) was a distinguished archaeologist, museum curator and collector. He co-directed the excavations at Samarra with Ernst Herzfeld and was instrumental in building up the core holdings of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, where he acted as chief curator for many years. 
  

1. Tempera on canvas, marouflaged on panel, 42 by 30 cm.  Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. GK 15 A; see Mensger, under literature, no. 139b, reproduced.  The Darmstadt panel was transferred to canvas and marouflaged onto a later panel, and the present work has also been described as on canvas, marouflaged.  As a recent technical examination has confirmed, it is quite clearly still on its original pinewood panel, with no evidence of any layer of canvas or linen between the paint and the panel, and it seems likely that the Darmstadt and other constituent panels were all also originally on pinewood panels.  The medium of the present panel has been catalogued in the past as tempera and oil, but there is no evidence of any tempera.
2. Adoration: Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum; Circumcision: Colmar, Musée d'Unterlinden (but sent there from the Louvre, where located in earlier literature); see Mensger, op. cit., reproduced fig. 139/2; Nativity: Philadelphia, Museum of Art; see Moraht-Fromm, under literature, reproduced p. 34, fig. 7.
3.  See under literature, 1959 & 1965.
4.  See under literature, 1965.
5.  See under literature, 2001.