Lot 580: Caspar Freisinger (Ochsenhausen 1560-1599 Ingolstadt)

Caspar Freisinger (Ochsenhausen 1560-1599 Ingolstadt)
Saint Christopher and the Christ Child
Sketches in black chalk (verso)
pen and brown ink, brown and grey wash, watermark horse and rider
11¼ x 8 in. (28.6 x 20.3 cm.), unframed

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Caspar Freisinger spent much of his career working as a painter, miniaturist and etcher in and around Ingolstadt. Few of his drawings survive, but his finished paintings establish him as the foremost Bavarian artist of his time. The hermit whom Freisinger has depicted on the left-hand side of this sheet played a key role in medieval lives of Saint Christopher. Having been tempted to take service with the Devil, whom he believed to have supreme power, Christopher was reconciled to God on seeing on the Devil recoil from the hermit's crucifix. When Saint Christopher was carrying the Christ Child across the river in the dark, the hermit lit his way with a lantern, the rays of light representing not only visual illumination but also spiritual enlightenment.