Coat of Arms with a Skull

Name: ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
Brand: Coat of Arms with a Skull
Price: 12000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 15,120

Estimate

GBP 8,000 - GBP 12,000

Closed: 21 Mar 2025

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ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)

Coat of Arms with a Skull

Price Realised GBP 15,120

Closed: 21 Mar 2025

Price Realised GBP 15,120

Closed: 21 Mar 2025

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)
Coat of Arms with a Skull
engraving
1503
on laid paper, without watermark
a fine impression, probably Meder I c
printing sharply, with good contrasts, depth and considerable inky relief
trimmed to or just outside the borderline or platemark
some old, repaired paper splits
Sheet 221 x 157 mm.

Unidentified, stamped initial A with a star (Lugt 53).
Possibly James Lawrence Claghorn (1817-1884), Philadelphia (Lugt 555c); his collection sold en-bloc to Garrett.
Thomas Harrison Garrett (1849-1888), Baltimore (Lugt 2435b); acquired from the above; then by descent to his sons John and Garrett; deposited with the rest of the collection at the Library of Congress, Washington, from 1904 to 1930; then on loan and finally gifted to the Baltimore Museum of Art between 1942 and 1946.
Baltimore Museum of Art (without mark; see Lugt 394a); presumably their sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New-York, 26 April 1950.
Private Collection, New York; then by descent to the present owner.

Bartsch 101; Meder, Hollstein 98; Schoch Mende Scherbaum 37

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Lot Essay

is Dürer's final and undoubtedly greatest graphic essay on the theme of love, lust and death, a subject that preoccupied the artist from his first engraving, and to which he would return again and again throughout the early years of his career as a printmaker ().
Dürer took traditional elements of heraldry; shield, helmet, wings, scrollwork and a wild man (wild men were at times depicted as bearers of armorial devices) to create a highly complex image. The wild man has all but abandoned his task of holding the shield and helmet and is fondling an elegant young woman who, by her festive dress and wedding crown, can be identified as a patrician Nuremberg lady. She does not seem to mind the advances of this bestial figure, and casts coquettishly glances at the shining helmet and the shield. Perhaps she is seduced by the armorial splendor and fails to see that the promise of this coat of arms is not glory and wealth, but death. is however not simply a , but also a satire on the aristocratic pretensions and aspirations of the Nuremberg burghers. Last but not least it is also a deliberate, and astonishing, display of virtuosity.