Johann König Nuremberg 1586 - 1642

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 9 February 1973, lot 106, for 4,800 Guineas to Scheidwimmer;
With Scheidwimmer, Munich;
With Julius Böhler, Munich;
Private collection, Germany.

Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, on loan, inv. no. Dep. 481.

A.W. Vliegenthart, "Das Bronckhorster Galeriebild auf Schloß Anholt", in J. Bruyn et al (ed.), Album Amicorum J.G. van Gelder, The Hague 1973, p. 340, note 22;
A.W. Vliegenthart, Bildersammlung der Fürsten zu Salm, Rhede 1981, p. 46;
R. Baljöhr, in E. Mai (ed.), Das Kabinett des Sammlers, Gemälde vom XV. bis XVIII Jahrhundert, Cologne 1993, pp. 149-150, no. 59, reproduced in colour p. 151.

The painting depicts the visit of Minerva to the Muses at Mount Helicon, mentioned by Ovid in his Fifth Book of the Metamorphoses (Met. V. 250-268). This was a sacred place for the Muses as it was the source for the two springs called Aganippe and Hippocrene, which are visible to the background.

At least two other versions of this picture are known, and all three are on copper plates of very similar size.  One is a painting acquired by the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt in 1963, signed and dated 1619, and on a copper plate measuring 20.5 by 30 cm.¹  There are many small differences: for example in the Darmstadt picture the rays of sun filtering through a projecting leafless branch are absent, but rays from a setting sun project from the horizon instead; the globe before the nearest Muse is absent, and there are many changes in the distant landscape.  A further version, dated 1620, is recorded in a private collection.²  There is evidence of a larger, lost version, which is shown in a painting of the interior of a picture gallery: the so-called Bronckorster Galeriebild in the collection of the Fürsten zu Salm at Schloss Anholt, an anonymous work of circa 1645.³  No figures are included in the Anholt picture to give an indication of scale, but by comparison with the other paintings depicted, the lost version, which is closer in composition to the present picture than to the Darmstadt one, must have measured at least 1 by 1½ metres, and probably larger still.  While König is known for his small-scale works on copper, larger pictures on canvas by him are known, such as the Death of Niobe’s Children sold in these Rooms, 10 April 2003, lot 33, and the monumental Last Judgement which he painted for the courtroom of the Rathaus in Augsburg in 1626.

The date on this picture has been read as 1622, but the last two digits are unclear, and it may well be dated 1619.

1  See W. Köhler, "Neuerwerbungen des Hessisches Landesmuseums Darmstadt", in Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein, 4, 1964, pp. 11-12, no. 6, reproduced, and K.J. Dorsch, "Das Gemälde "Suzanna im Bade" der Hamburger Kunsthalle - Ein Hauptwerk Johann Königs", in Idea, IV, 1985, pp. 80-81.
2  According to Baljöhr, under Literature, p. 150.
3  See Vliegenthart, 1973 & 1981, under Literature.