‘The angels’ mass’

Details

After Albrecht Dürer (Nuremberg 1471-1528)
‘The angels’ mass’
with monogram 'AD' (interlaced)
pen and brown ink, pen and brown ink framing lines, watermark bull's head with a serpent surmounted by a cross (cf. Briquet 15374 and 15375)
11 ¼ x 8 ½ in. (28.7 x 21.7 cm)

Provenance

Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré-Bürger (1807-1869), Paris, for
L’Alliance des Arts (1842-1848), Paris (L. 61).
Kunsthaus Malmedé, Cologne.
Johannes Goldsche (died in 1953), Berlin.
Anonymous sale; Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, 22 November 1956, lot 188.
with unidentified collector's mark HB (L. 3499).
Dr Kröker, Essen (in 1985).
with Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich.

Literature

F. Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers, Berlin, 1936, I, under no. 181.
F. Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Hans Süss von Kulmbachs und Hans Leonhard Schäufeleins, Berlin, 1942, no. 12 (as Hans Süss von Kulmbach).
L. Oehler, 'Das ‘geschleuderte’ Dürer-Monogramm', Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, Marburg, XVII, 1959, pp. 64, 73 and 151-153, fig. 8 (as Hans Süss von Kulmbach).
W. L. Strauss, The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Dürer, New York, 1974, II, under no. 1500/11.
B. Butts, “Dürerschüler” Hans Süss von Kulmbach, Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1985, pp. 102-103 (as Hans Süss von Kulmbach).
B. Butts, 'The Drawings of Hans Süss von Kulmbach', Master Drawings, 2006, XLIV, no. 2, Spring 2006, p. 198, no. B4 (as Albrecht Dürer).
D. Hess and T. Eser, Der frühe Dürer, exhib. cat., Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2012, pp. 256-257.
S. Porras and J. Remond in The Early Dürer, exhib. cat., Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2012, pp. 256, 477.
N. Strasser, Dessins des écoles du nord du XVe au XVIIIe siècle. Collection Jean Bonna, Geneva, 2013, no. 4, ill.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Brought to you by

Jonathan den Otter

jdenotter@christies.com +44 (0) 207 389 2736

Lot Essay

This is a copy after a fascinating drawing by Dürer from circa 1500 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, a satire on the good and bad thoughts (represented by angels and demons) of the clerics seen along the sides of the composition (Strauss, op. cit., no. 1500/7, ill.; J. Remond in exhib. cat., Nuremberg, 2012, op. cit., pp. 256, 477, no. 156, ill.). It is not entirely clear what Dürer made the drawing for; in an inscription inside the cartouche, he addresses a patron or collaborator (‘here you can write what you want’). The Bonna drawing may have played a role in this project, and in modern times, it has been attributed to Dürer’s assistant Hans Süss von Kulmbach as well as to Dürer himself (see Winkler, Oehler, Butts, op. cit.).

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