European Drawings 2: Catalogue of the Collections

CHRISTOPH BOCKSTORFFER

ACTIVE I5I3-I553

an attribution later affirmed by W. Hugelshofer.^4 In var-

ious publications beginning with that of 1925, Rott as-

sembled an oeuvre around Bockstorffer that included a

group of prints monogrammed CB and dated 1524 and

1531, works that have a stylistic affinity with the Hopfer

workshop in Augsburg. David before Saul (B.I[534]

v.i4,8), dated 1531, is especially close to the present

drawing in figurai style and ornamental vocabulary.

A challenge to Rott's construction of Bockstorffer s

oeuvre recently posed by B. Konrad^5 centers on the lat-

ter's attribution of the altarpiece in the Münster, Con-

stance—dated 1524 and, since Rott's publications, re-

garded as the centerpiece of Bockstorffer's oeuvre—to

Matthàus Gutrecht the Younger. Konrad also removed

the group of stained-glass designs from Bockstorffer's

oeuvre, intimating that he believed them to be by Gut-

recht, while ascribing the prints by the Monogrammist

"CB" to the virtually unknown Augsburg artist Conrad

Bauer. Given the questions left open by this thesis, the

attribution of the Museum's drawing to Bockstorffer is

maintained here.

1. The three other known drawings in the series are in the
   Ôffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel (inv. 1911.164); formerly
   on the art market, Vienna; and currently on the American art
   market (formerly in the F. Drey collection, London).


2. J. Schneider, Glasgemalde: Katalog der Sammlung des schweiz-
   erischen Landesmuseums Zurich (Zurich, 1970), vol. i, p. 174, no.
   149 , fig. 149.


3. See above (note i).


4. H. Koegler, "Heinrich Holtzmüller, " Allgemeines Lexicon der
   bildenden Kunstler von derAntike bis zur Gegenwart, begründet von
   Ulrich Thieme und Felix Becker (Leipzig, 1924), vol. 17 , p. 410,
   col. i; H. Rott, "Beitràge zur Geschichte der oberrheinisch-
   schwâbischen Glasmalerei: Konstanzer Glasmaler und Glas-
   malerei in der ersten Hàlfte des 16. Jahrhunderts," Oberrhein-
   ische Kunst i (1925), p. 29; W. Hugelshofer, Swiss Drawings of
   theXV. andXVI. Century (London, 1928), p. 38, no. 52.


5. "Das Triptychon von 1524 in der Konradi-Kapelle des
   Munsters zu Konstanz und die Christoph-Bockstorffer-
   Frage," Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-
   Wurttemberg 55 (1988), pp. 54fF. Brand's article was kindly called
   to my attention by C. Müller.

272 CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • BOCKSTORFFER

iig Mucius Scaevola Thrusting

His Right Hand into the

Flames before Lars Porsenna

Pen and black ink, gray and two shades of yellow
wash, and red chalk; H: 43. 6 cm (i7^3 /i6 in.); W: 32.7 cm
(i2^7 /sin.)
88.GG.6

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: Inscribed cemerliny, por-
senna, mutins scevolon next to figures in brown ink;
xxiiii.C in shield at bottom in brown ink; on mount, at
bottom right corner, collection mark of J. C. Robinson

(L. 1433).

PROVENANCE: J. C. Robinson, London; private collec-
tion (sale, Sotheby's, New York, January 16, 1986, lot
15); art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Geissler, "Zeichnung und Zeichen
im deutschen Südwesten 1500-1630," in Die Renaissance
im deutschen Südwesten, exh. cat. (Badisches Landesmu-
seum Karlsruhe, 1986), vol. i, p. 304.

THE PRESENT DRAWING IS THE MOST RECENT TO COME

to light in a series of stained-glass designs showing an-

cient Roman heroes and heroines.^1 The drawings are

highly worked in watercolor as well as wash and are dis-

tinguished by their exuberant and fanciful repertoire of

ornamental forms. The present example draws on earlier

depictions of the subject in stained-glass windows, such

as that made in Zurich circa 1519 (Zurich, Schweizer-

isches Landesmuseum inv. Dep. 39), which has a large,

heavily ornamented frame with fighting wild men at the

top and which contains an airy landscape showing the

siege of Rome in the distance.^2 A number of the orna-

mental forms, such as the coffered archway and columns

set with profiles of kings and emperors, indicate a

knowledge of the stained-glass designs of Hans Holbein

the Younger.

The drawing in this group now in Basel^3 was at-

tributed by H. Rott to Bockstorffer, a painter, print-

maker, and designer of stained glass active in Constance,