Lot 135
  • 135

Dürer, Albrecht, and Johann Stabius

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • '[Map of the World as a Sphere]'. [Vienna,] 1781 (from woodblocks cut in 1515)
  • paper, ink
Woodcut map of the world printed from four blocks on two joined sheets (totaling 27 x 35 1/2 in.; 687 x 902 mm). Some separations and repairs at folds, with minor loss at one intersecting fold, a few unobtrusive worm trails. Handsomely framed with UVIII Plexiglass.

Literature

Shirley 39; 'The World Encompassed' 50

Condition

Woodcut map of the world printed from four blocks on two joined sheets (totaling 27 x 35 1/2 in.; 687 x 902 mm). Some separations and repairs at folds, with minor loss at one intersecting fold, a few unobtrusive worm trails. Handsomely framed with UVIII Plexiglass.
The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot provided by Sotheby's. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colours and shades which are different to the lot's actual colour and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation because Sotheby's is not a professional conservator or restorer but rather the condition report is a statement of opinion genuinely held by Sotheby's. For that reason, Sotheby's condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot.

Catalogue Note

Although not signed, this striking world map is acknowledged to be the work of Albrecht Dürer. The map was produced in collaboration with Johann Stabius, astronomer to the court of Maximilian I, and was a pendant to a pair of celestial charts on which they had collaborated. The spherical world is surrounded by spectacular depictions of the twelve traditional windheads, with the corners bearing (clockwise from the upper left) the arms of Cardinal Matthaüs Lang, Archbishop of Salzburg, Stabius's dedication to Cardinal Lang, the privilege granted to Stabius by Maximilian dated 1515, and the arms of Stabius.No sixteenth-century example of the map survives, but the original woodblocks were rediscovered shortly before the present impressions were pulled in 1781. This edition, published by Joseph Elden von Kurzbeck under the supervision of the scholar Johann Adam von Bartsch, is itself now very rare. The woodblocks are now preserved in the Albertina Museum.

"The most interesting features of the map are those with which we must suppose Dürer endowed it: the vigorous artistic presentation and the ingenious representation of a globular map upon a flat surface—one of the earliest stereographic projections attempted" ('World Encompassed').