Lot Essay
Lieb and Stange (loc.cit.) fully accepted the present lot as by Holbein the Elder, dating it to the 1490s. They compared it to the drawing of the Crowning of Mary in the Kupferstichkabinett, Basel, which is a preliminary study for the picture in the Bishop's Palace at Eichstätt of 1480 (Lieb and Stange, op.cit., no. 128, plate 50 and no. 3C, plate 6 respectively). The present lot may also be compared to Holbein's drawing of the same subject from a larger series of Saints in the Kupferstichkabinett, Basel (Lieb and Stange, op.cit., no. 67, fig. 145). A copy after the present drawing is also in the Kupferstichkabinett, Basel (inv.no.U.VII.26).
A large number of Holbein's drawings are known to have been in Basel by the end of the 16th Century. Many of these were in the collection of the Basel collector Amorbach (d. 1591), now preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett, Basel. The present lot is of particular interest since it was in the collection of the glass painter Jerg Martin Wannenwetsch, who lived in Basel circa 1600. Dr. Fritz Koreny has, on the basis of a photograph, neither confirmed nor rejected the attribution.
A large number of Holbein's drawings are known to have been in Basel by the end of the 16th Century. Many of these were in the collection of the Basel collector Amorbach (d. 1591), now preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett, Basel. The present lot is of particular interest since it was in the collection of the glass painter Jerg Martin Wannenwetsch, who lived in Basel circa 1600. Dr. Fritz Koreny has, on the basis of a photograph, neither confirmed nor rejected the attribution.