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Lot Essay
In recent years, careful attempts have been made to differentiate between autograph works by Leonhard Kern, and the productions of his workshop and his followers, especially by Christian Theuerkauff in the wake of the Kern exhibition of 1988-1989 (Siebenmorgen, loc. cit.). The two crucial figures in this connection are his son, Johan Jakob Kern (1626-1668) and his nephew, Johan Georg Kern (1622-1698), but it is still too early to be absolutely confident about differentiating between the various hands involved.
In the case of the present group, the attribution to Leonhard Kern himself (Schmitz, loc. cit.) was rejected by Grünenwald in her monograph on the artist (Grünenwald, loc. cit.). It is certainly markedly different in character from the treatment of the same subject generally accepted as by Kern now in the Budapest Museum (Grünenwald, loc. cit., pl. 49), and this cannot simply be a matter of the difference between working in wood and ivory. In any event, the delicacy and the refinement of the carving reveal the hand of an extremely accomplished sculptor.
In the case of the present group, the attribution to Leonhard Kern himself (Schmitz, loc. cit.) was rejected by Grünenwald in her monograph on the artist (Grünenwald, loc. cit.). It is certainly markedly different in character from the treatment of the same subject generally accepted as by Kern now in the Budapest Museum (Grünenwald, loc. cit., pl. 49), and this cannot simply be a matter of the difference between working in wood and ivory. In any event, the delicacy and the refinement of the carving reveal the hand of an extremely accomplished sculptor.