intertwined branches; and the black chalk indications for
the sake of the glass painter all point in this direction.
Some scholars, beginning with Knappe (1961, p. 60),
have identified the monk preaching as Saint Vincent Fer-
rer on account of the prominent placement of Christ as
judge above his left hand. As J. Marrow has noted, this
detail indicates the subject of the sermon.^2 The identifi-
cation of the preacher is somewhat vitiated by the ab-
sence of a halo, but no preferable suggestion has yet been
offered.
1. C. Koch, Die Zeichnungen Hans Baldung Griens (Berlin,
1941), no. 3.- Conversation with the author, Malibu, 1984.
i2j Studies of Heads
r
Studies of a Male Figure
v
Pen and black ink; H: 12.3 cm (4^7 /s in.); W: 17.2 cm
(6V 4 in.)
84.GA.8i
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom right corner,
signed with monogram HBG in black ink.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, France (sale, Hotel
Drouot, December 1983); art market, Paris.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THIS NEWLY DISCOVERED SHEET IS ONE OF FOUR BY
Baldung showing various studies of heads. Two others
are in the Louvre, Paris (inv. 37, 38), and a third was for-
merly in the collection of Robert von Hirsch, Basel.^1 As
in the other drawings, here Baldung has drawn a wide
variety of types within one spatial unit, and all are woven
together by the abstract hatching applied throughout, in
particular between the rows of heads. The drawing also
includes both a piece of drapery at the right and a young
man looking upward at a sharp angle, as in the larger
Louvre drawing.^2 This young man, as well as the frontal
crowned woman and the bearded man at the top left of
the sheet, are all facial types the artist was studying for
possible later use in paintings and prints. By contrast, the
six faces clustered in groups of two and four near the up-
per center of the sheet have the appearance of physiog-nomic characterizations or types. This is especially true
of the three profile heads at the center right, which have
much in common with physiognomic studies by Diirer
in Kansas City (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art
and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 5 8 - 62) and
Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, inv. Kdz 42) ,^3 with the latter
containing a drapery study as well. Stylistically, the Mu-
seum's drawing is closest by far to the one formerly in the
von Hirsch collection, with which it shares a diversity of
pen work; in both, lighter strokes are employed in most
areas and broader, darker accents in others, above all in
the eyes, noses, and mouths. However, the Museum's
recto seems less a composed sheet, and its pen strokes
are a bit freer in execution, suggesting a date of around
1512/13 or somewhat later than the ex-von Hirsch draw-
ing. The slight sketches of a nude figure on the verso do
not provide enough visual information for evaluation.1. C. Koch, Die Zeichnungen Hans Baldung Griens (Berlin,
1941), nos. 17 , 18, 33.- Ibid., no. 18.
- W.L.Strauss, The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Durer
(New York, 1974), vol. 3, nos. 1513/4, 1513/6.
282 GERMAN SCHOOL • BALDUNG GRIEN