128 Nude Woman with a Minor
(Vanitas)Pen and brown ink; H: 16.9 cm (6llAo in.); W: 10.4 cm
(4I/sin.)
Sc.GA.ó
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom corner, in-
scribed AD (false Durer monogram) in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Germany; art market,
Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
JACOPO DE' BARBARI'S PRINT NUDE WOMAN Hom-
ing a Mirror (Allegory of Vanitas) (B.i2[522Jv.i3,7) of
circa 1503-4 was the inspiration for the top portion of
the figure in this previously unknown drawing. While
the classical fullness of the form presupposes a knowl-
edge of Durer's figure studies such as the barbariesque
Nude Woman with Mirror of circa 1500 (collection of Ma-
jor S. V. Christie-Miller, Clarendon, Wiltshire), the
drawing also departs from Durer's precedent in its lack
of a consistent proportional system and its gothicizing
pondération. Pointing to the influence of de' Barbari
both in terms of subject matter and in the fine hatching
that emphasizes the play of light over the form, B. Butts
has argued convincingly for the authorship of Hans von
Kulmbach, who reputedly apprenticed with the Venetian
master prior to his association with Durer and whose art
bore the stamp of de' Barbari throughout his career.^1 The
facial type shown on the present sheet is found in Amorous
Couples with an Old Woman (Staatliche Graphische
Sammlung inv. 1928:101), while analogously fine, lu-
minous hatching occurs, for example, in Seated Man
Holding a Stool (Coburg, Kunstsammlungen der Veste
inv. z 2321) and the pen-and-ink sketch Saint Florian
(Germanisches Nationalmuseum inv. HZ 82). Overall
the pen work comes closest to Orpheus and Eurydice,
dated 1518 (Ashmolean Museum inv. PI 3 97). Butts^2 con-
siders the present example to date from Kulmbach's ma-
ture period, probably around the time of the Oxford
drawing or a bit earlier.1. Conversation with L. Hendrix, 1989. She will include this
drawing in her forthcoming monograph on Kulmbach's
drawings.- Conversation with L. Hendrix, 1989.
29 O CENTRAL EUROPEAN SCHOOL • KULMBACH