Calligraphic Trompe-l'œil Calendar

Matthias Buchinger German

Not on view

Part of a group of calendars that Buchinger produced early in his career, this spectacular example seeks to trick the eye with its curling pieces of vellum attached to a wall with wax seals and pushpins. The calendar marks each day of December with the celebration of a Christian saint; accents of red ink recall the practice of rubrication, in which medieval scribes would emphasize letters in manuscripts using ink of a similar color. Buchinger is known through his signed pieces to have visited Augsburg, Nuremberg, Zurich, and, because of this drawing, Winterthur in 1709. Along with the Johann Michael Püchler portrait of Martin Luther seen nearby, it was found in a friendship album amassed in the early eighteenth century by Hans Wilpert Zoller in Zurich.

Calligraphic Trompe-l'œil Calendar, Matthias Buchinger (German, Ansbach 1674–1739), Pen and red, brown, and black ink, brush and gray wash

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Calligraphic Trompe-l'œil Calendar, Matthias Buchinger (German, Ansbach 1674–1739), Pen and red, brown, and black ink, brush and gray wash
Calligraphic Trompe-l'œil Calendar, Matthias Buchinger (German, Ansbach 1674–1739), Pen and red, brown, and black ink, brush and gray wash

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