HANS BALDUNG GRIEN
126 A Monk Preaching
Pen and brown ink and black chalk; H: 30.8 cm (12 Vs
in.); W: 22.3 cm (SM/iein.)
83.GA.i94
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) unidentified col-
lection mark of B. S. (L. Suppl. 4i4b).
PROVENANCE: B. S. collection; G. Schwarting, Del-
menhorst; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: Hans Baldung Grien, Staatliche Kunst-
halle, Karlsruhe, July- September 1959, no. 108 (cata-
logue by C. Koch et al.). Zeichnungen alter Meister aus
deutschem Privatbesitz, Kunsthalle Bremen, February-
April 1966, no. 64 (catalogue by W. Stubbe).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Hausmann, Albrecht Dtirers Kupfer-
stiche, Radimngen, Holzschnitte und Zeichnungen (Han-
nover, 1861), p. 94; F. Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Albrecht
Durers (Berlin, 1936), vol. i, pp. 143, under no. 202; 144,
under no. 207; H. Mohle, "Zur Karlsruher Baldung
Ausstellung," Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte 22 (Summer
!959)> P- J 29 ; P. Halm, "Die Hans Baldung Grien Aus-
stellung in Karlsruhe 1959," Kunstchronik 13 (May 1960),
p. 127; K.-A. Knappe, "Baldung als Entwerfer der Glas-
gemalde in Grossgriindlach," Zeitschrift fur Kunstwissen-
schaft 24 (1961), pp. 60, 76; F. Winkler, "Ein Titelblatt
und seine Wandlungen," Zeitschrift fur Kunstwissenschaft
24 (1961), pp. 155-156, fig. 7 ; K. Oettinger and K.-A.
Knappe, Hans Baldung Grien und Albrecht Durer in Ntirn-
berg (Nuremberg, 1963), p. 125, no. 25; W. L. Strauss,
The Complete ^Drawings of Albrecht Durer (New York,
1974), vol. 6, pp. 2946, under no. xw. 198; 2952, under
no. xw. 202; 2968, under no. xw. 210.THIS DRAWING WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE CATA-
logue of the Baldung exhibition of 1959 (no. 108), in
which it is associated with his early woodcuts of the De-
position and the Last Judgment (Koch et al. 1959, n H, nos.
10, 17), and his securely dated drawings of 1504-1505.
Here Winkler and Schilling are cited as proposing that
the sheet is among the earliest existing drawings from
Baldung s Nuremberg period. It is also noted that the
Museum's drawing is related thematically and compo-
sitionally to the drawing Saint Benedict Preaching (Ger-
manisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, inv. H2548o;
Winkler 1936, vol. i, no. 201), one of the designs for
cycles of stained-glass windows showing the life of Saint
Benedict produced by Durer and his shop. The attribu-
tion to Baldung and the date of circa 1504/05 have been
universally accepted since 1959.
Taken individually, the various details in the draw-
ing find many parallels in Baldung s other works. The
listening female is quite similar in physiognomy and ex-
pressive character to the Virgin in the woodcut of the
Last Judgment, while the drapery worn by the Virgin in
the Deposition woodcut and in a slightly later woodcut,
Holy Family with Rabbits (Koch et al. 1959, n H, no. 23),
are nearly identical. Knappe (1961, p. 76) has noted that
the rather porcine man just behind the seated female is
comparable to the figure at the left of Christ in a stained-
glass window illustrating the Supper at Emmaus that
was designed by Baldung for the parish church of Gross-
griindlach, and that the fingers of the disciple facing
Christ in the window are very similar to those of the
preacher in the Museum s drawing. L. Hendrix has
added that the robust man at the left side of another win-
dow, Christ Preaching in the Temple, from the same cycle
is still closer to the porcine man with the hat in the draw-
ing (Knappe 1961, fig. 2). The right hand of Saint John
the Baptist in the Last Judgment woodcut, with the fifth
finger in front of the fourth and the thumb extended, al-
most precisely repeats the left hand of the preacher here.
Similarly, the rather stubby fingers of the preacher's right
hand, with their curiously described nails, are analogous
to the left hand of Saint Bartholomew in a pen-and-ink
drawing by Baldung of 1504 in the Kunstmuseum Basel
(Kupferstichkabinett, Amerbach-Kabinett, inv. u. HI.
74)-^1 The execution of the two drawings is also very sim-
ilar, with a combination of long, thin strokes to describe
outlines and smaller, sometimes looped strokes for mod-
eling and shading. The manner of depicting eyes is also
quite comparable. All of these visual and stylistic rela-
tionships support the placement of the Museum's draw-
ing within Baldung s work of around 1505.
Knappe (1961) and Winkler (1961) both have pro-
posed that the Museum's drawing was made as a study
for a stained-glass window, a hypothesis that has re-
ceived general agreement. The character of the compo-
sition, with the figures crowded closely in the fore-
ground; the design of the upper framing consisting of280 GERMAN SCHOOL • BALDUNG GRIEN