FRIEDRICH SUSTRIS
CIRCA I54O-I599
w j Angels Bearing the Column of
the Passion
Pen and dark brown ink and gray wash; H: 16.6 cm (6^9 /i6
in.); W: 20.6 cm (8 Va in.)
86.GA.8
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Switzerland; art mar-
ket, Paris.
EXHIBITIONS: Pamela Gordon Presents Old Master Draw-
ings, Bob P. Haboldt, Inc. Gallery, New York, 1985, no.
24.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
AMONG THE LESS FULLY EXPLORED ASPECTS OF Sus-
tris's role as overseer of the arts at the court of Duke Wil-
liam V of Bavaria is his activity as a designer of decora-
tive objects. His major known project of this type is a
series of twenty-five etched glass panels forming the
door of a reliquary shrine in the Reichen Kapelle of the
Munich Residenz. Sustris acted as the designer of the
panels, which were carved by Zacharias Peltzer, proba-
bly during the middle 15905. The present drawing cor-
responds to one of six panels showing angels with the
instruments of the Passion. The composition of the sheet
was altered in the glass intaglio, most significantly in the
deletion of the angels supporting the capital and base of
the column. While a number of drawings for the reli-
quary survive in copies, this is the only autograph ex-
ample to have come to light. The surviving copies in-
clude ones of the present sheet in the Szépmüvészeti
Múzeum (inv. 1387) and Kunstmuseum der Stadt Dus-
seldorf, Kupferstichkabinett (inv. F?528o).250 DUTCH SCHOOL • SUSTRIS