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Lot Essay
The attribution was kindly confirmed by Dr. Tilman Falk in a letter dated 23 November 2000. The drawing is from the same series as a group of thirteen apostles in Leipzig (two of which are reproduced in K.-H. Mehnert, Chefs d'oeuvres du musée de Leipzig, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Petit-Palais, 1983, nos. 22-3; the complete set is in F. Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Hans Süss von Klumbachs und Hans Leonhard Schäufeleins, Berlin, 1942, nos. 26-38). The present drawing and the Leipzig ones were all included in the Liphart sale in 1898, but the present one was then called Hans Baldung Grien and was in a separate lot. The Leipzig drawings, signed, were catalogued as lot 864 with the correct attribution and were bought in the sale by the museum. The drawings from lot 864 are similarly silhouetted and bear the same 19th Century number '18386'. Friedrich Winkler, who was unaware of the present drawing, dated the series to 1514, which is confirmed by the date inscribed here.
An old copy of the drawing, without the date, is in the Amerbach Collection in Basel, F. Winkler, op. cit., no. A.12 (as not by Schäufelein).
Schäufelein studied with Albrecht Dürer in the first years of the 16th Century. His first woodcut is dated 1505, the year he left Nuremberg for Italy. Back in Germany he worked with Hans Holbein the Elder and in 1510 settled in Augsburg for five years. There he executed woodblocks for the Emperor's literary projects and other designs for local printers. The present drawing, coming from the Augsburg period, was probably, along with the Leipzig drawings, for a large series of prints of Saints which were never executed. In 1515 Schäufelein moved to Nördlingen, where he remained for the rest of his life.
A large group of drawings by Schäufelein is in the British Museum, J. Rowlands, Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-Speaking Regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, London, 1993, nos. 445-457. One of them datable to 1512-5 (no. 453, pl. 285; A standing Landsknecht) is particularly close in handling to the present sheet.
An old copy of the drawing, without the date, is in the Amerbach Collection in Basel, F. Winkler, op. cit., no. A.12 (as not by Schäufelein).
Schäufelein studied with Albrecht Dürer in the first years of the 16th Century. His first woodcut is dated 1505, the year he left Nuremberg for Italy. Back in Germany he worked with Hans Holbein the Elder and in 1510 settled in Augsburg for five years. There he executed woodblocks for the Emperor's literary projects and other designs for local printers. The present drawing, coming from the Augsburg period, was probably, along with the Leipzig drawings, for a large series of prints of Saints which were never executed. In 1515 Schäufelein moved to Nördlingen, where he remained for the rest of his life.
A large group of drawings by Schäufelein is in the British Museum, J. Rowlands, Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-Speaking Regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, London, 1993, nos. 445-457. One of them datable to 1512-5 (no. 453, pl. 285; A standing Landsknecht) is particularly close in handling to the present sheet.