ALBRECHT DURER
129 Stag Beetle
Watercolor and gouache, top left corner added with tip
of left antenna painted in by a later hand; H: 14.2 cm
(5^9 /i6 in.); W: 11.4 cm (4^ in.)
84.00.21 4 (SEE PLATE 14)MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left corner,
signed and dated i$05/AD in brown ink; on mount, at
bottom left, collection mark of John Postle Heseltine; on
mount, at bottom right, collection mark of Alain Delon.
PROVENANCE: Horace Walpole, earl of Oxford (sale, G.
Robins, London, June 23, 1842, lot 1266); Charles Sack-
ville Bale, London (sale, Christie's, June 9, 1881, lot
2277); John Postle Heseltine, London; Henry Oppen-
heimer, London; G. Tyser, London (sale, London, Soth-
eby's, June 26, 1969, lot 53); Alain Delon, Paris.
EXHIBITIONS: Drawings by Old Masters, Royal Academy
of Arts, London, 1953, no. 232 (catalogue by K. T. Parker
and J. Byam Shaw). Albrecht Diirer 1471-1528: Gravures,
Dessins, Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, April-July
1978, no. 145 (catalogue by H. Mielke). Albrecht Diirer
und die Tier- und Pflanzenstudien der Renaissance, Gra-
phische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, April-June 1985,
no. 36 (catalogue by F. Koreny).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Ephrussi, Albert Diirer et ses dessins
(Paris, 1882), pp. 78-80; M. Thausing, A. Diirer—
Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst (Leipzig, 1884),
vol. i, p. 21, no. 303; S. Killermann, A. Durers Pflanzen-
und Tierzeichnungen und ihre Bedeutung fur die Naturge-
schichte, Studien zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 119
(Strasbourg, 1910), vol. 119 , p. 49; M. Deri, Naturalis-
mus, Idealismus, Expressionismus (Leipzig, 1922), p. 25; H.
Wolfflin, Die Kunst Albrecht Durers (Munich, 1926), pp.
166, n. i; 128, no. AI4O; F. Lippmann, Zeichnungen von
Albrecht Diirer in Nachbildungen (Berlin, 1927), vol. 2, no.
169 ; C. Dodgson, "Two Diirer Catalogue Raisonnes,"
Burlington Magazine 53, no. 307 (October 1928), p. 201;
G. Pauli, "Der siiddeutsche Diirer und die Methode der
Kunstgeschichte," in G. Bierman, ed., Albrecht Diirer:
Festschrift der internationalen Diirer-Forschung (Leipzig,
1928), p. 71; H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, Kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Durers, vol. i (Basel and
Leipzig, 1928), p. 128, no. AI4O; F. Winkler, "Diirerstu-
dien, I. Durers Zeichnungen von seiner ersten italien-
ischen Reise (1494-95)," Jahrbuch der Preussischen Kunst-
sammlungen 50 (1929), pp. 137 , 138; E. Flechsig, Albrecht
Diirer—Sein Leben und seine kiinstlerische Entwicklung, vol.
2 (Berlin, 1931), pp. 9, 310; H. Tietze, "Diirerliteratur
und Diirerprobleme im Jubilaumsjahr," Wiener Jahrbuch
Jiir Kunstgeschichte 7 (1932), pp. 246, 247; F. Winkler, Die
Zeichnungen Albrecht Durers, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1937), pp.
74-75; 81-82, no. 370; E. Panofsky, Albrecht Diirer
(Princeton, 1943), vol. 2, p. 131, no. 1^59; H. Tietze,
Diirer als Zeichner und Aquarellist (Vienna, 1951), pp. 35,
36; H. T Musper, Albrecht Diirer—Dergegenwdrtige Stand
der Forschung (Stuttgart, 1952), pp. 126, 149; S. Killer-
mann, A. Durers Werk—Eine natur- und kulturgeschichtliche
Untersuchung (Regensburg, 1953), p. 24; F. Winkler, Al-
brecht Diirer—Leben und Werk (Berlin, 1957), pp. 181-
182 ; G. Zampa and A. Ottino della Chiesa, L'opera com-
pleta di Diirer (Milan, 1968), p. 115, no. 195; W. J. Hof-
mann, Uber Durers Farbe (Nuremberg, 1971), p. 39;
W. L. Strauss, The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Diirer
(New York, 1974), vol. 2 , no. 1505/15; L.J. Bol, Goede
Onbekenden (Utrecht, 1982), pp. 36, 37; F. Piel, Albrecht
Diirer', Aquarelle und Zeichnungen (Cologne, 1983), pp.
142-143, no. 58; M. L. Hendrix, "Joris Hoefnagel and
the 'Four Elements': A Study in Sixteenth Century Na-
ture Painting," unpub. Ph.D. diss., Princeton Univer-
sity, 1984, p. 121; E. Schlumberger, "La nature d'apres
Diirer," Connaissance des arts 399 (May 1985), p. 84.THE STAG BEETLE is AMONG THE MOST FAMOUS
animal studies of the early German Renaissance. It was
accepted as the work of Diirer by all scholars of the sub-
ject with the exception of the Tietzes (1928) and Panofsky
(1943) until the exhibition at the Albertina (1985), in the
catalogue for which Koreny expressed new doubts. For
the Tietzes, the division of the beetle into three parts
seemed inorganic and therefore characteristic of late
sixteenth-century form, while Panofsky offered no ex-
planation for his difficulties with the attribution to Diirer.
By contrast Koreny has raised a number of new ques-
tions bearing on the attribution, pointing out that the an-
atomical rendering of certain details is inaccurate and that
it is also later in date than the drawing of 1503, Madonna
with a Multitude of Animals, in the Albertina, Vienna (inv.
3066 D 50; Koreny 1985, no. 35), in which a similar stag
beetle is included. According to his argument, the Mu-DURER • GERMAN SCHOOL 287