ALBRECHT DURER
1471-1528- Design for an Ornament
Pen and brown ink; H: 5.9 cm (2^5 /i6 in.); W: 5.5 cm
( 2 Vain.)
89.GA.i 9
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at top, dated 1516
in brown ink by the artist; at bottom right corner, in-
scribed 57 in dark brown ink by a later hand; (verso) in-
scribed 2013 in graphite.
PROVENANCE: H. G. Gutekunst, Auction 48, no. 2013;
E. von Feder, Karlsruhe; Prince of Liechtenstein, Vi-
enna; Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, Portinscale, Cum-
berland (sale, Sotheby's, June 30, 1986, lot 52); art mar-
ket, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: Old Master Drawings from the Collection of
Dr. and Mrs. Francis Springell, National Gallery of Scot-
land, Edinburgh, July-September 1965, no. 4.BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Lippmann, Zeichnungen von Albrecht
Durer (Berlin, 1896), vol. 4, p. 33, no. 436; E. Schilling,
"Beitrag zu Dürers Handzeichnungen übersehene und
verschollene Werke," Stddel-Jahrbuch i (1921), p. 126; E.
Flechsig, Albrecht Durer: Sein Leben und seine kunstlerische
Entwicklung (Berlin, 1931), vol. 2, p. 353; H. Tietze and
E. Tietze-Conrat, Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht
Dürers (Basel and Leipzig, 1937), vol. 2, p. 165 , no. wiO3;
F. Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers (Berlin,
!938), vol. 3, p. 117, no. 740; E. Panofsky, Albrecht Durer
(Princeton, 1943), vol. 2, pp. 143-44, n°- !525;H. Kohl-
haussen, Die Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst des Mittelalters
und der Durerzeit 1240 bis 1540 (Berlin, 1968), pp. 411, 414 ;
W. L. Strauss, The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Durer
(New York, 1974), vol. 3, pp. 1590, under no. 1515/62;
1634 , under no. 1516/8, no. 1516/9.
THIS IS THE ONLY DATED EXAMPLE AMONG A GROUP
of drawings by Durer for small pieces of jewelry, all of
which he probably made around the same time. The cal-
ligraphic quality of the present sheet is especially remi-
niscent of the marginalia in the Prayerbook of Emperor
Maximilian of 1515 (BayerischeStaatsbibliothek), which
Durer had recently completed. As is indicated by the
trimmed flourish at the top, the design was cut from a
larger sheet. It bears a coat of arms comprising a demi-
fleur-de-lis at the left and demi-rose at the right, which,
as noted by Panofsky (1943), might have belonged either
to Matthaeus Lang von Wellenburg, cardinal of Salz-
burg, or to the Nuremberg humanist and lawyer Lazarus
Spengler. The reversed position of the rose and fleur-de-
lis from both of the above-mentioned coats of arms led
Winkler (1938) to speculate that the design was made for
an engraving and Panofsky to suggest that it was made
for a signet ring.282 CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • DURER