121 Bridal Scene
Pen and black ink and brown and orange wash; diam.
19.8 cm (7I3/ioin.)
89.00.17
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) collection marks
of Rudolf P. Goldschmidt (L. 2926), David Felix; in-
scribed Jorg Breu in black chalk.
PROVENANCE: Rudolf P. Goldschmidt, Berlin (sale,
Prestel, Frankfurt-am-Main, October 4, 1917, lot 76); E.
Czeczowicska, Vienna (sale, C. G. Boerner and Paul
Graupe, Berlin, May 12, 1930, lot 45); LessingJ. Rosen-
wald, Philadelphia; Mr. and Mrs. David Felix, Philadel-
phia (sale, Christie's, New York, January 12, 1988, lot
90); art market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Schilling, "Jôrg Breu," Old Master
Drawings 8 (September 1933), pp. 29-30; K. T. Parker,
Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings in the Ashmolean
Museum (Oxford, 1938), vol. i, p. 120, under no. 280; E.
Schilling and K. Schwarzweller, Stàdelsches Kunstinstitut:
Die deutschen Zeichnungen (Munich, 1973), vol. i, p. 22,
under no. 45; J. Rowlands, German Drawings from a Pri-
vate Collection, exh. cat. (British Museum, London; Na-
tional Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and German-
isches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 1984), p. 35,
under no. 31.
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF STAINED-GLASS DESIGNS
by Breu first published by Schilling (1933, pp. 20-30),
including examples in his own collection, London, the
Stàdelsches Kunstinstitut (inv. 15418), and formerly in
the E. Rodrigues collection, Paris (sold Frederick Muller,
Amsterdam, July 12-13, 1921, lot 9). Modeling in or-
ange wash is a distinctive technical feature of the present
drawing that also occurs in the example in Frankfurt.^1
The scenes in the various roundels illustrate tale 20, "Of
Tribulation and Anguish, " from the fourteenth-century
Gesta Romanorum, which tells of the rise of a boy who,
cursed at birth by the emperor, becomes the son-in-law
of the very ruler who had plotted his demise. The present
drawing conflates two episodes, the youth's arrival at
court and his somewhat uncomfortable presence in the
marriage bed of the emperor's daughter, accompanied
by the empress and her ladies-in-waiting. The drawing
is the most splendid in the series, owing to the extensive
use of orange wash, the ornate character of the bridal
chamber and bed, and the three-dimensionality of the
space and classicizing character of the architecture. These
latter features suggest that Breu executed it later in his
career, perhaps after his Italian sojourn of circa 1514. Fur-
ther episodes from the story are probably represented in
a pair of drawings in a European private collection which
Schilling (ibid., p. 22, no. 45) regarded as copies.i. Based on its close similarity to the roundel in Frankfurt, C.
Andersson reconfirmed Breu's authorship of the Museum's
drawing (letter to G. Goldner, January 20, 1988).276 CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • BREU THE ELDER