Calligraphic Trompe-l'œil Calendar

1709

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.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Calligraphic Trompe-l'œil Calendar
Artist: Matthias Buchinger (German, Ansbach 1674–1739)
Date: 1709
Medium: Pen and red, brown, and black ink, brush and gray wash
Dimensions: sheet: 5 5/8 x 4 1/16 in. (14.3 x 10.3 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Jean A. Bonna Gift, 2007
Object Number: 2007.223.44
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Matthias Buchinger

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730, Matthias Buchinger German, Pen and ink on vellum — Ten Commandments, London, December 3, 1730
Matthias Buchinger
1730

Border Designs for the Mortlake "Acts of the Apostles" Tapestries, Franz Cleyn German, Watercolor with white heightening, details in pen and ink and graphite — Border Designs for the Mortlake "Acts of the Apostles" Tapestries
Franz Cleyn
ca. 1626–36

Design for a Wall Panel or Ceiling with The Virgin and Saints Interceding before Christ for the Souls of the Lost, Johann Baptist Enderle German, Pen and black ink, watercolor and gouache on laid paper — Design for a Wall Panel or Ceiling with The Virgin and Saints Interceding before Christ for the Souls of the Lost
Johann Baptist Enderle
1771 or before

An Allegory of Fortune with Two River Gods, Hans Jakob Ebelmann German, Pen and black ink and gray and blue wash over black chalk — An Allegory of Fortune with Two River Gods
Hans Jakob Ebelmann
1624

Allegory of Art, Peter Schmidt von Lichtenberg German, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, heightened with white on yellow prepared paper — Allegory of Art
Peter Schmidt von Lichtenberg
1609

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