Lot 77: The Road to Calvary

Caspar Freisinger (Ochsenhausen circa 1560-1599 Ingolstadt) The Road to Calvary dated 'A o. 1590. penultimo aprilis [29 April 1590]' pen and brown ink, brown and red wash 7¼ x 5¼ in. (184 x 131 mm.)

Perhaps E. Jabach (cf. L. 2959), with associated gold framing lines.

A drawing of Christ curing the Sick, dated by Freisinger in a similar manner '1590. Aprilis. 9' and therefore drawn less than three weeks before the present work, is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (F. Thone, 'Caspar Freisingers Zeichnungen', Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft, VII (1940), no. 2, illustrated by M. Goering, Münchener Jahrbuch für bildenden Kunst, 1930, p. 263, pl. 61). A drawing by Freisinger of The Coronation of the Virgin, dated 1594, with the same fine penwork and broad washes, and with similar curly heads and strong profiles, is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden, and was made in preparation for an altarpiece for the cathedrawl at Winterhof-Eichstätt (F. Thone, op. cit., no. 20, fig. 2 [the drawing], and fig. 1 [the painting]).
Of almost seventy drawings published by Thone, all but one are dated after 1589. It has been suggested, particularly in view of the apparent influence of the Zuccari and Cesare Nebbia, that Freisinger was in Italy at this time. Further drawings by Freisinger are illustrated in H. Geissler, Zeichnung in Deutschland, Deutsche Zeichner 1540-1640, exhib. cat., Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, 1979-80, nos. D30-32.