Lot 8: *Wenzel Jamnitzer (1508-1585)

*Wenzel Jamnitzer (1508-1585)
urania.
Signed with a monogram (strengthened), and dated:
15 WI 37.
Black chalk.
126 by 92mm.
Provenance:
Henry Oppenheimer, his sale, London, Christie's, 10-14 July 1936, lot 388, to How.
Literature:
E. Kris, 'Zum werke Peter Flotners und zur geschichte der Nurnberger goldschmiedekunst', Pantheon, vol.ix, 1932, p.95, fig 1.
This extremely rare signed and dated drawing by Jamnitzer is inspired by the group of bronze plaquettes of the Nine Muses executed by Peter Flotner, who was one of the most influential Nuremberg artists of the previous generation (see Ingrid Weber, Deutsche, Niederlandische und Franzosische Renaissanceplaketten 1550-1650, Munich 1975, vol.i, pp.78-9, cat.58.9, vol.ii, pl.16). Although the Flotner series had traditionally been dated circa 1540, the date on this drawing suggests that they may in fact be slightly earlier. In his interpretation of the muse, Jamnitzer retains Flotner's general compositional type, with the draped figure standing in a landscape setting with a low horizon, but Urania has become a more attenuated and elegant figure and the arrangement of the attributes is entirely different.