Lot 11: Paul Decker the Younger (1685-1742)

An Allegory of Faith
signed in red chalk, lower left: P. Decker, delin:
red chalk within a red chalk framing line
345 x 210mm
exhibitions: Kate De Rothschild, Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, June 27th-July 11th, London 1979

The present drawing was originally one of a pair, the other depicting Four Scenes from the Old Testament. Although it is not easy to identify the object beneath the female figure, it appears to us to be an anchor rather than a broken wheel suggesting an allegorical subject (see Kate De Rothschild, ibid., 1979, no.28, where the subject was interpreted as The Death of Catherine of Alexandria. In that catalogue, Dr Biedermann suggested that the two carefully finished drawings with their elaborate borders and empty cartouches were intended for bible illustrations. The largest grouping of Decker's drawings is in the Germanischen Nationalmuseums, Nuremberg, the city where the artist lived his whole life (see Monica Heffels, Die Deutschen Handzeichnungen, Band IV, Die Handzeichnungen des 18 Jahrhunderts, Nuremberg, 1969, pp.59-65, nos. 47-53)