MAIR VON LANDSHUT
CIRCA I450-AFTER 1504129 Study of an Angel
Pen and black ink and white tempera heightening on gray
prepared paper; H: 11.3 cm (4% in.); W: 9.5 cm (3^3 /4Ín.)
89.00.il
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At top, dated 98 in black
ink by the artist; at bottom left corner, collection marks
of Jean-François Gigoux (L. 1164), Emile-Joseph Rig-
nault (L. 2218); at bottom right, inscribed ¿475 in gray
paint.
PROVENANCE: Jean-François Gigoux, Paris; Emile-
Joseph Rignault, Paris; L. Rosen thai, Bern (sale, Sothe-
by's, London, July 6, 1967, lot i); L. V. Randall, Mon-
treal; art market, Hamburg; art market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: Handzeichnungen und Aquarelle des ij.-iy.
Jahrhunderts, Thomas Le Claire Kunsthandel, Hamburg,
November-December 1984, no. i.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THE ATTRIBUTION OF THIS SHEET TO MAIR VON
Landshut is based on its technical and stylistic similarity
to his work in a variety of media. F. Anzelewsky
(Thomas Le Claire Kunsthandel 1984) compared it to
The Disrobing of Christ (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett inv.
xdz 1048), which is likewise drawn on gray prepared pa-
per in black ink with white heightening. Despite having
suffered some surface damage, the present drawing con-
tains traces of heightening that once appears to have been
as extensive as that in the Berlin example and its com-
panion Passion scenes in the Museum der Bildenden
Künste (inv. NI. 28-29). The similarity of the angel to
that in the Annunciation predella, dated 1495, of Mair's
Freising Altarpiece (Freising, Cathedral Sacristy) was
noted by F. Koreny (in Thomas Le Claire Kunsthandel
1984). The stiff, flat folds of the angel's robe and the
heavy hatching of those sections in shadow call to mind
the treatment of the drapery in a drawing, Saint John the
Evangelist (British Museum inv. 1981-3-28-14), that is
also dated 1498 at the top. Furthermore prints by
Mair such as The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
(B. 8[366]v. 9,6) frequently contain lively, smiling angels
of the type depicted in the drawing.
The difficulty in interpreting the flying angel's
pointing gesture in the absence of other figures might in-
dicate that the artist excerpted the figure from a larger
composition such as a painting or print.^1 The drawing
would appear to have been made as a highly finished
study in the tradition of medieval model books or pos-
sibly as an independent work of art, as has recently been
proposed for the Berlin/Leipzig Passion drawings.^2- Suggested by P. Parshall in conversation with L. Hendrix,
- H. Mielke, Albrecht Altdorfer: Zeichnungen, Deckfarbenmal-
erie, Druckgraphik, exh. cat. (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche
Museen Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin, and Museen der
Stadt Regensberg, 1988), p. 326, under no. 211.
292 CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • MAIR VON LANDSHUT