Lot 266: Attributed to Hans Hoffmann (Nuremberg 1545-1591 Prague)

Attributed to Hans Hoffmann (Nuremberg 1545-1591 Prague)
A stag beetle
signed (?) with monogram and dated '1.5.7.4'
watercolor, bodycolor, heightened with gold on vellum, varnished, oval, pen and black ink framing lines
4 1/8 x 5½ in. (10.4 x 14 cm.)

The present drawing is a copy after a prototype by Dürer, signed with his monogram and dated 1505, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. 83.GC.214). One of the most admired and copied studies of nature, this intricate drawing of a stag beetle was also copied by Joris Hoefnagel, who included it in his Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis), plate V, in circa 1580 (Washington, National Gallery of Art, inv. 1987.20.5.6), and engraved by his son Jacob Hoefnagel. The present drawing is one of three versions known attributed to Hoffmann: the other two are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. 184) and (showing the beetle in reverse), the Staatliche Museen, Berlin (inv. KdZ 2046). For further information, see F. Koreny, Albrecht Dürer und die Tier- und Pflanzenstudien der Renaissance, exhib. cat., Vienna, Albertina, 1985, nos. 36-8.