BARTHEL BEHAM
1502-154 0
115 Study of Three Skulls
r
Architectural Study
v
Pen and black ink, gray wash, and white gouache height-
ening on green prepared paper (recto); pen and black ink
(verso); H: 14.9 cm (5^7 /8Ín.); W: 23.2 cm (cVsin.)
89.GA.2 4
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom, inscribed AD
(false Durer monogram) in gray ink.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, France; art market,
Paris; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
THE LEFT-HAND SKULL, WITH ITS PRETERNATURAL IR-
idescence, harks back to Durer's drawing of a skull of
circa 1521 in the Albertina (inv. 3175 D 147), which may
explain the later addition of the false Durer monogram.
However, the emphasis on graphic expressiveness here,
as opposed to Durer's greater concern with surface de-
scription in the Albertina drawing, is more closely re-
lated to Danube School artists such as Wolf Huber. The
composition as a whole closely resembles, and is in re^4 -
verse of, the three right-hand skulls in Beham's well-
known engraving Sleeping Child with Four Skulls of circa
1530 (B.28(ra)[95]v.i5,8). With respect to details, the
skulls in the drawing vary considerably from those in the
print, in particular the middle one in the drawing, whose
intricate description of the chaotic pits and crevices of the
skull's underside suggests that it was drawn from life.
The drawing appears to have been preparatory to the
print. The freely sketched architectural study on the
verso, which blends classicizing and Gothic elements,
has a scénographie character that calls to mind designs for
triumphal arches for civic festivities such as that by Georg
Pencz for the entry of Charles V into Nuremberg in 1541
(Bayerisches Staatsarchiv, Reichsstadt Nürnberg inv. si
LI34, NR. 19). Conversely, it may also have been an ar-
chitectural fantasy of the top portion of a facade, with no
further purpose in mind. There are other instances of
German draughtsmen of this period sketching architec-
tural motifs on the versos of highly finished, color-
grounded drawings.^1i. For example, Albrecht Altdorfer's Wild Man Carrying an Up-
rooted Tree (recto)] Architectural Studies (verso) (British Museum
inv. 1910-6-11-1).verso206 CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • B. BEHAM