Albrecht Dürer, 1471 Nürnberg - 1528 ebenda, Werkstatt des

Albrecht Dürer,
1471 Nuremberg - 1528 ibid., workshop of

A pair of panel paintings
SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST
and
SAINTS ERASMUS, LAWRENCE, AND THOMAS

Oil/mixed media on lime panel.
123 x 37 cm each.
ca. 1510/20

Accompanied by an expert’s report by Ludwig Meyer dated 15 March 2002, Friedrich Winkler dated 4 April 1963 and Professor Dr Alfred Stange, dated 13 February 1963, in copy.

The two panels, painted in narrow portrait format, formed the outer sides of a winged altar and each depict two saints standing next to one another: John the Evangelist and Erasmus on the left and Lawrence and Thomas on the right. A special feature is the colouration in grisaille technique, which was still rare in Germany at that time. It was introduced to Germany from the Netherlands between 1500 and 1515.
The typical Dürer manner is striking, and translucent underdrawings can also be seen against the dark blue background. Ludwig Meyer points out in his report that the artist was probably aware of two panel paintings by Grünewald created for the Dominican Church in Frankfurt in 1509, which were also in grisaille, and also the high altar of the Kunigunde Church in Rochlitz. The depictions of saints on the “Annenaltar” (St Anne Altar) from 1510 in Nuremberg’s Church of Saint Lawrence are also mentioned for comparison. Dürer expert Professor Dr Alfred Stange dated the paintings to ca. 1510 and attributed them to one of Dürer’s workshop assistants “of high quality”. It remains unclear for which altar the two wings were originally created. Regardless of the artist’s attribution, which has not yet been clearly established by current research, these are important works from Dürer’s workshop from ca. 1510/20.

Provenance:
Until 1929 Murray Collection, Florence.
Auction Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbig, Berlin 6-7 November 1929, lot 314-315, with ill. no. (cat. estate Professor E. Buchner, today Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich.
Private collection, Rhineland.
Professor Dr Jakob Strieder Collection, Munich (1877-1936).
1963 Kunsthandel Xaver Scheidwimmer, Munich.
Since 1963 private collection, Munich.
Lempertz, Cologne, Auction 812, 17 November 2001, lot 1052.
Dr Bernhard Decker Collection, Frankfurt/M.

Literature:
cf. Rainhard Riepertinger, Das Rätsel Grünewald, exhibition catalogue, Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, Augsburg 2002.
cf. Landesausstellung 2002-2003, Aschaffenburg, Schloss Johannisburg cat. no. 101.