Hans Franckenberger the Elder

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Hans Franckenberger the elder
st john the evangelist
Pen and black ink and gray wash, heightened with white, on brown prepared paper;
dated in white gouache: 1519;
bears pencil inscription in an early 20th century hand on the backing: Dieser Blatt von Albr. Dürer vom Lavater / dann in Besitz v. Sturm in Greitz später an Borrier [?]; and attribution: Glockendon, Georg 1492-1553

Provenance

Heinrich Wilhelm Campe (L.1391), apparently by descent;
sale, London, Christie's, 8 December 1981, lot 97, reproduced (with other drawings from the Campe collection);
sale, New York, Sotheby's, 13 January 1988, lot 65, reproduced

Exhibited

New York, National Academy of Design, European Master Drawings from the Collection of Peter Jay Sharp, 1994, p. 50, cat. no. 19, reproduced (entry by Werner Schade)

Catalogue Note

Hans Franckenberger appears to have been much influenced by Hans Baldung Grien. His name is known through inscriptions on two drawings in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, one of which is a copy of Baldung's drawing of St Nicholas of Bari, of which two versions exist, one at Chatsworth (inv. no. 834) and one in the Louvre.¹The present drawing also shows the strong influence of Baldung, but no prototype has been identified, although a small woodcut of the subject by Baldung is somewhat similar (B. 22). Schade, in his entry in the Sharp exhibition catalogue, suggests that its style is closest to works by Baldung from circa 1511 and writes: 'It is executed in the elaborate chiaroscuro manner, the first examples of which were produced in Germany in drawings by Lucas Cranach, Hans Burgkmair, and Baldung - to be made use of in woodcuts - and in Albrecht Altdorfer's first autonomous drawings.'²

1. See E. Bock, Die Deutschen Meister..., Berlin 1921, vol. I, p. 43, cat. nos. 804 and 290, reproduced vol.II, pl. 55; and M. Jaffé, The Devonshire Collection of Northern European Drawings, Turin 2002, vol. IV, p. 456, cat. no. 1511 (the Louvre version also reproduced)

2. See Exhibited, loc. cit.