MARTIN SCHONGAUER (CIRCA 1445-1491)

Saint Michael slaying the Dragon

Details

MARTIN SCHONGAUER (CIRCA 1445-1491)
Saint Michael slaying the Dragon
engraving, circa 1469-74, on laid paper, watermark Gothic P with Flower (Stogdon 20), a fine, clear and even impression, printing with light vertical wiping marks, trimmed on or just inside the platemark but retaining a fillet of blank paper outside the borderline, in very good condition
Sheet 164 x 115 mm.

Provenance

Albertina, Vienna, with their duplicate stamp (Lugt 5 f); their sale, C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, 25-27 May 1925, lot 1270 (‘Äußerst seltenes Blatt in ausgezeichnetem Abdruck’) (1300 Mk.).
Gerhard Güttler (1889-1966), Berlin & Bad Tölz (Lugt 2807); his sale, C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, 7 May 1928, lot 1078.
Richard H. Zinser (circa 1883-1983), Forest Hills, New York (not in Lugt).
With Nicholas Stogdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985.

Literature

Bartsch 58; Lehrs, Hollstein 63 I/1

Sale Room Notice

Please note that we have additional provenance information: the print was also in the collection of Gerhard Guettler (Lugt 2807), and was sold at Boerner in Leipzig in 1928.
Also please note that there are some small, skilful repairs at the sheet edges, with touches of pen and ink to the borderline.

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Lot Essay

‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ (Revelations 12:7-9)

Representing the eternal, and ultimately victorious, struggle of good over evil, Schongauer reduces his composition to the central protagonists. Saint Michael, representative of the heavenly hosts, stands upon a struggling but defeated Satan who is about it receive his coup de grâce. The composition is spare and elegant, the S-shaped curve of Saint Michael’s body leading the eye to the raised upper arm holding the lance, and the strong diagonal emphasizing the downward plunge of the impending blow.

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