The Four Humours: A head in profile to the left above two pairs of heads in profile and three-quarter-profile to the right, with a further head in profile to the left below; and two related drawings

细节

The Four Humours: A head in profile to the left above two pairs of heads in profile and three-quarter-profile to the right, with a further head in profile to the left below; and two related drawings
the first related drawing inscribed 'Viel köpfe Sinne die unterschiedenheit setz sich nicht scharf ab, aber schmilst auch nicht zusamen, es ust nur ein ... ubergang von einem zum andern damit das einzelne almelig ein ganzes macht' (Many heads, many sense. The differences does not stand out clearly, but also does not fuse together. It is only a [gradual?] transition from one to the other, by which the individual gradually makes the whole)
(1) oil on paper, extended at the top, in a contemporary mount; (2) pen and grey ink on light blue paper, watermark 'M NO 1'
8 1/8 x 9¼ in. (205 x 233 mm.); 13 1/8 x 16½ in. (335 x 417 mm.); and 10½ x 15 1/8 in. (268 x 383 mm.) (3)

拍品专文

Preparatory drawings for this composition are in the Landesmuseum, Oldenburg (W. Tischbein (ed. P. Reindl), Die Eselsgeschichte, Oldenburg, 1987, figs. 41 and 63).
The second drawing at Oldenburg is inscribed with the humours' identifications: from left to right Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric and Melancholic. The heads above and below are middle positions between these extremes, a problem of combination touched on by Tischbein in his manuscript note to the preparatory drawing.
(2) Illustrated in plate IV, p. 135.