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拍品专文
As Schtz and Brugger proposed, this is the altarpiece commissioned for the Chapel of the Cross (Kreuzkapelle), the burial place of the Schwarzenberg family, in the cemetery of the Franciscan church in Munich, which had previously been regarded as lost. This work was presented as a discovery in the exhibition Prag um 1600 in Vienna, after L. Ronzoni recognised it as by von Aachen (see Schtz, op. cit., p. 81). Peltzer (see 'Der Hofmaler Hans von Aachen, seine Schule und seine Zeit', Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, Vienna, 1911/12, p. 164, no. 13) believed that the altarpiece was the one offered for sale in Berlin in 1882 as on panel, 250 x 160cm. However, Dr. Brugger has pointed out that all works by von Aachen of the Munich period are on canvas. Her attribution to Hans von Aachen is accepted here, although after the Vienna exhibition reservations were expressed verbally by Dr Eliska Fuiková.
Von Aachen is usually thought to have returned from Venice to Munich in 1589. The chapel was renovated in 1586, and it is assumed that von Aachen worked on the altarpiece at this time. It is not known when the altarpiece was removed from the chapel.
The subject of the painting is taken from the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, who relates how the Empress Helena found the True Cross in the ruins of the former temple of Venus that had been erected as a heathen monument by Hadrian on Golgotha to ensure that Christianity would be obliterated. The legend tells how the Empress ordered the destruction of the temple, and of the subsequent discovery of the three crosses 'twenty feet underground'. In order to distinguish between the True Cross of Christ and those of the thieves, these were placed in the centre of the town 'to wait for the power of the Lord to become evident'. The corpse of a young man was placed on top of the cross and his return to life established the True Cross's authenticity. In the background is depicted the Emperor Heraclius returning the True Cross to Jerusalem, another subject taken from the Golden Legend.
Von Aachen included three portraits in the composition. To the left is Count Otto Heinrich, identified by comparison with Sadeler's engraving after a portrait by von Aachen of the Count (see E. Fuiková, 'Über die Tätigkeit Hans von Aachens in Bayern', Mnchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, XXXIV, Munich, 1970, p. 131, fig. 3) with his court jester, the dwarf Wöflin, identifiable by a portrait in a tapestry in the Munich Residenz (Brugger, op. cit., fig. 5), shown beneath him. To the right is a self-portrait of the artist which is comparable to the self-portrait in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (Brugger, op. cit., fig. 12).
A signed presentation drawing reproduced by Brugger (op. cit., fig. 2), is in the National Gallery, Prague while a perhaps earlier preparatory drawing is in the print room at Leyden (Brugger, op. cit., fig. 3).
Von Aachen is usually thought to have returned from Venice to Munich in 1589. The chapel was renovated in 1586, and it is assumed that von Aachen worked on the altarpiece at this time. It is not known when the altarpiece was removed from the chapel.
The subject of the painting is taken from the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, who relates how the Empress Helena found the True Cross in the ruins of the former temple of Venus that had been erected as a heathen monument by Hadrian on Golgotha to ensure that Christianity would be obliterated. The legend tells how the Empress ordered the destruction of the temple, and of the subsequent discovery of the three crosses 'twenty feet underground'. In order to distinguish between the True Cross of Christ and those of the thieves, these were placed in the centre of the town 'to wait for the power of the Lord to become evident'. The corpse of a young man was placed on top of the cross and his return to life established the True Cross's authenticity. In the background is depicted the Emperor Heraclius returning the True Cross to Jerusalem, another subject taken from the Golden Legend.
Von Aachen included three portraits in the composition. To the left is Count Otto Heinrich, identified by comparison with Sadeler's engraving after a portrait by von Aachen of the Count (see E. Fuiková, 'Über die Tätigkeit Hans von Aachens in Bayern', Mnchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, XXXIV, Munich, 1970, p. 131, fig. 3) with his court jester, the dwarf Wöflin, identifiable by a portrait in a tapestry in the Munich Residenz (Brugger, op. cit., fig. 5), shown beneath him. To the right is a self-portrait of the artist which is comparable to the self-portrait in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (Brugger, op. cit., fig. 12).
A signed presentation drawing reproduced by Brugger (op. cit., fig. 2), is in the National Gallery, Prague while a perhaps earlier preparatory drawing is in the print room at Leyden (Brugger, op. cit., fig. 3).