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ex-libris THE WORLD OF EX-LIBRIS |
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A historical retrospective 1 EARLY PRINTED EX-LIBRIS 1470-1700 |
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1b
THE GERMAN RENAISSANCE DÜRER, CRANACH D.A. AND THE ‘KLEINMEISTERN’ 1500-1620 The Renaissance reached Northern Europe nearly 200 years after it shattered mediaeval aesthetic canons in Italy. It flourished in Germany, Switzerland and Austria from about 1500 onwards, and corresponds to the period when a remarkable group of artists raised the ex-libris from a simple printed identification of ownership to that of a work of art. Even if many plates of the Dürer school and other ‘Little Masters’, mainly from Nuremberg, have been abundantly recorded and illustrated since the 1890s, their aesthetic qualities have had such an influence on the development of the printed image that they must be presented in some detail. What distinguishes these ex-libris from some of the other 16th century plates shown here? Usually, they are more ornate than other ex-libris, as we have seen with Jost Ammann (1a/11 and 1a/13), particularly during the middle to late German Renaissance. Beyond mere ornamentation, they achieve a harmony of composition, a balance in the decorative occupation of a small printed area, which has rarely been surpassed. There is no definite list of the ‘Kleinmeistern’, although most art critics agree on an approximate list of names, nor is there a definite time-frame before which or beyond which an artist does not qualify. Their works, or at least their influence stretches from about 1500 to 1620, the latter date being usually accepted as the end of the Renaissance and the beginning of baroque in Germany. |
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1b/1. Albrecht Dürer ( D, 1471-1538)  WILLIBALD
PIRKHEIMER , X1, 172 x 120, c.1500. W1584. Viz. Retberg p. 50; L-W
p. 106 + ill. p. 104; etc.
This and the following ex-libris are two of the six which can definitely be ascribed to Dürer’s hand. Pirkheimer (Eichstadt, 1470- 1530) was counsellor to the Emperor Charles V, author and bibliophile and a friend of Dürer. It was made before 1503. The text ‘sibi et amicis’ means ‘belonging to him and his friends’, a reminder of the pleasure of sharing one’s treasures with friends, and also of the rarity and value of books at that time. Leiningen (op. cit.) considers the Pirkheimer ex-libris ‘perhaps the most interesting of all German bookplates’. Formerly in the Franze collection, Buenos Aires. |
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1b/2. Albrecht Dürer JOHANN TSCHERTE, X1, 186 x 144,
c.1521. Viz. Retberg p. 244; L-W p. 108; WRBP p.1; etc.
Tscherte was architect and bridge-builder to the Emperor Charles V, and also a friend of Dürer. The arms with satyr and two dogs is a punning coat, the Bohemian word tschert or czert meaning ‘devil’ or ‘satyr’. Formerly in the Hintze collection. |
1b/3. Albrecht Dürer ? SEBASTIAN VON ROTENHAN, C2,
183 x 119, c.1510. Viz. Bartsch p. 100.
Still today there is much discussion as to whom this heraldic plate was engraved for by Dürer, and even whether it was ever used as an ex-libris. Both wood and metal engraving were used for ex-libris as soon as they started being made; after 1540, progressively metal began dominating over wood. Formerly in the de Rozières collection. |
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1b/4. Workshop of Albrecht Dürer HECTOR PÖMER, X1 ,
298 x 198, 1525. W1593.Viz. L-W pp. 110-111; von Zurwesten p. 24; etc. Experts today agree that Dürer himself designed this ex-libris for Pömer, the Provost of the church of St. Laurence in Nuremberg, although a few have in the past attributed it to Hans Sebald Beham. The inscription ‘R A 1525’ is understood to mean ‘R(esch)’ (engraver), ‘A(nno)’ (year) 1525. Zurwesten considers this the most accomplished work of Dürer in the field of ex-libris. Formerly in the Stroehlin collection, Geneva. |
1b/5. Workshop of Albrecht Dürer ALBRECHT V SCHEURL,
X1 + T, 158 x 140, c.1523. W1895.
The original woodcut block for Albert V Scheurl and his wife Anna Zingl of Nürnberg show the couple’s arms with below a cherub holding a cartouche with a motto; a rare proof in the collection shows the cartouche empty. Here illustrated, however is a version of the plate reutilised by Christof Scheurl III von Defersdorf and his wife Sabine Geuder zum Heroldsberg. The owner had the shield of Zingl replaced by Geuder and changed the motto to an inscription mentioning his date of birth, November 11, 1481. The original was reworked c.1560. The Scheurl family obviously had good taste in the choice of artists for their ex-libris: Dürer, Cranach, Jost Ammann... This print was previously in the von Rodt collection, Zürich, and was exhibited in Germany in 1991. |
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1b/6. ? H. R. (?D/A) GREGORIUS ANGRER, X1, 173 x 133,
1521. Viz. ELZ ii, No. 4, p. 5; L-W p. 138, ill. p. 139.
Perhaps it is not logical to place this ex-libris by an unidentified artist amongst the plates of the ‘Kleinmeistern’, but its style reflects the period perfectly. As Angrer was Canon of Brixen and Vienna, it is uncertain whether this plate is by an Austrian artist – though very much in the German style of the time. |
1b/7. Hans Christof Bosch (D, fl. 1500-1550) ?, X1,
125 x 98, c.1535. W 240. Viz. W, ill.
Little has been discovered, so far, about this rare ex-libris by Bosch. The decorated columns and arch with portraits makes it a perfect example of Renaissance heraldic presentation. As often, however, the artist forgot to take into account the mirror effect of printing, and the helm and shield face the wrong way – unless it was intentional, and a sign, then, of illegitimacy. However, it is most unlikely that the owner would have asked the artist to flaunt it. |
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1b/8. Lukas Cranach d. A. (D, 1472-1553) CHRISTOF
SCHEURL, X1, 232 x 144, c.1540.
Lucas Cranach the Elder occupies a key position in the Mediaeval- Renaissance transition in Europe. This rare ex-libris by his hand was not thought to be a bookplate until found pasted in an early printed Bible. It shows Scheurl and his two sons, and their coat-of-arms. This print, in a remarkably good state of conserva-tion, has on the reverse the stamps of the print cabinet of the King of Prussia. Formerly in the Hintze collection. |
1b/9. Lukas Cranach d. A. (Kronach, D, 1472-1553)
HERZOG ULRICH VON MECKLENBURG, X1, 148 x 106, c.1552.
W 1264.Viz. L-W p.130. This plate was certainly engraved by Cranach himself, as it bears his small snake-like sign cut into the wood in the lower left-hand corner. It originally appeared in the Mecklenburg mass-book, and was used as a bookplate from 1559 onwards. It also appears with an inscription and date below, and a copy – without Cranach’s signature – was reengraved and used as an ex-libris after 1590. The powerful Duke Ulrich of Mecklenburg was born in 1527 and died in 1603. Formerly in the Witte collection. |
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1b/10. Barthel Beham (D, 1502-1540) HIERONYMUS
BAUMGARTNER, C2, 80 x 52, c.1530. W137. Viz. L-W p.116. Baumgartner was a lawyer and Senator in Nuremberg, and a friend of Martin Luther. This is one of the earliest vanitas theme plates: it contains reminders – the clock, the hour-glass, the skull – that man is mortal, and his books will outlive him. An even rarer variety of the plate exists, with a text in Latin, Hebrew and Greek and the owner’s name printed around the four sides, illus-trated in Leiningen p. 116. |
1b/11. Hans Sebald Beham (D, 1500-1550) IPSE, C2,
67 x 58, 1544. Viz. WRBP p. 9, L-W ill. p. 117. One of the finest and rarest ex-libris of the 16th Century, made by H. S. Beham for his own books. His coat-of-arms displays a chevron between the three shields of the Artists’ Guild. Formerly in the Lee collection. This and the preceding plate were exhibited in Germany in 1991. |
1b/12 to 1b/23 1b/24 to 1b/33
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