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Hill-Stone, Inc.
Albrecht Dürer
Coat of Arms with a Skull.
Engraving
German
1503
Albrecht Dürer engraving
Sheet: 220 x 159 mm 8 11/16 x 6 ¼ inches
description
Coat of Arms with a Skull.
Engraving; 1503. Bartsch 101; Meder 98 b (of D)[1]; Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 37. Provenance: H. Blaker, dated 1760, Lugt 263a. No visible watermark.
A brilliant impression in very good condition; small marginal repairs right and left, tip of the lower right corner and at the sheet above. Trimmed to the engraved borderline.
Our engraving participates in what had already been a tradition in Northern engraving from the mid-15th century. Master E. S., the Housebook Master and Martin Schongauer, among others, engraved such subjects. Dürer, however enlarged upon the representations of the earlier artists.
A hirsute Wild Man with curly hair and a flowing beard presents himself as an amorous partner to an elegantly dressed and crowned aristocratic woman. She coquettishly strokes the leather strap with which he supports the armorial device of a winged, armored helmet above a shield with a skull. Dürer has thus brought together the theme of the Wild Man[2], the relations between the sexes, and memento mori with stunning aplomb. Not the least of the effect of the image comes from the exceptional richness of the impression, in which physical details of the wings, the brilliantly polished armor, and the details of the woman’s costume contrasted with the hairy Wild Man make this engraving a tour-de-force, one of Dürer’s early graphic masterpieces.
220 x 159 mm 8 11/16 x 6 ¼ inches
[1] In the case of our impression Meder’s description of this engraving is unclear. Although not all of the scratches he describes for his ‘b’ impressions are present in our impression, the fine vertical scratch through the left projecting portion of the shield is visible. The paper is unwatermarked. Meder describes ‘a’ impressions with High Crown watermarks, his ‘b’ impressions with Bull’s Head watermarks and his ‘c’ impressions with Small Pot watermarks, the paper for ‘c’ impressions is also described as ‘white and soft’ which does not describe the paper of our sheet. Meder’s ‘d’ impressions have a prominent scratch to the right of lower edge of the helmet which is not present. A reasonable comparison of our impression with the Meder categories would place ours firmly in his ‘b’ category, if not the ‘a’ category.
[2] The Wild Man, the human who inhabits the woodlands and who represents human-kind in its uncivilized state, may here be the messenger of death, who, even if he bears a splendid armored helmet as a symbol of earthly strength may also court the woman as a harbinger of her own mortality. He may also in a more generalized sense represent a confrontation between civilization and chaos.
Engraving; 1503. Bartsch 101; Meder 98 b (of D)[1]; Schoch, Mende, Scherbaum 37. Provenance: H. Blaker, dated 1760, Lugt 263a. No visible watermark.
A brilliant impression in very good condition; small marginal repairs right and left, tip of the lower right corner and at the sheet above. Trimmed to the engraved borderline.
Our engraving participates in what had already been a tradition in Northern engraving from the mid-15th century. Master E. S., the Housebook Master and Martin Schongauer, among others, engraved such subjects. Dürer, however enlarged upon the representations of the earlier artists.
A hirsute Wild Man with curly hair and a flowing beard presents himself as an amorous partner to an elegantly dressed and crowned aristocratic woman. She coquettishly strokes the leather strap with which he supports the armorial device of a winged, armored helmet above a shield with a skull. Dürer has thus brought together the theme of the Wild Man[2], the relations between the sexes, and memento mori with stunning aplomb. Not the least of the effect of the image comes from the exceptional richness of the impression, in which physical details of the wings, the brilliantly polished armor, and the details of the woman’s costume contrasted with the hairy Wild Man make this engraving a tour-de-force, one of Dürer’s early graphic masterpieces.
220 x 159 mm 8 11/16 x 6 ¼ inches
[1] In the case of our impression Meder’s description of this engraving is unclear. Although not all of the scratches he describes for his ‘b’ impressions are present in our impression, the fine vertical scratch through the left projecting portion of the shield is visible. The paper is unwatermarked. Meder describes ‘a’ impressions with High Crown watermarks, his ‘b’ impressions with Bull’s Head watermarks and his ‘c’ impressions with Small Pot watermarks, the paper for ‘c’ impressions is also described as ‘white and soft’ which does not describe the paper of our sheet. Meder’s ‘d’ impressions have a prominent scratch to the right of lower edge of the helmet which is not present. A reasonable comparison of our impression with the Meder categories would place ours firmly in his ‘b’ category, if not the ‘a’ category.
[2] The Wild Man, the human who inhabits the woodlands and who represents human-kind in its uncivilized state, may here be the messenger of death, who, even if he bears a splendid armored helmet as a symbol of earthly strength may also court the woman as a harbinger of her own mortality. He may also in a more generalized sense represent a confrontation between civilization and chaos.
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