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Dürer and Beyond: Central European Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1400–1700 and the exhibition it accompanies focus for the first time on a rich and varied facet of the Museum's collection. Presented in a loosely chronological manner to allow for groupings of works by city, school, and theme, the drawings selected for this catalogue range from rare early Bohemian head studies through the golden age of Albrecht Dürer to the diverse creations of Joachim von Sandrart, who was not only a highly proficient artist but the first art historian in Germany, composing and publishing biographies of many of the artists in this volume.
The Museum's collection of drawings has been assembled over a long period of time, by different departments, and from a variety of sources. The publication of this catalogue offers the opportunity to acknowledge those who have played an important role in the collection's development. Robert Lehman's bequest made a particularly significant contribution to the Museum's holdings of Northern works on paper from the early sixteenth century. The majority of the works in this selection have been enthusiastically acquired during the tenure of George R. Goldner, Drue Heinz Chairman of the Department of Drawings and Prints since 1993. Goldner recognized the weaknesses in the collection and systematically expanded and improved it with the finest works available.
The selection seen here offers a broad overview of the Museum's collection of Central European drawings from about 1400 to 1700. Many of the sheets have never before been on public view, nor have they been published in any significant manner. To complement the highlights in this book, the remainder of the Museum's Central European drawings from the period under discussion has been catalogued and photographed, and is now available on the Museum's website.
Director's ForewordThomas P. Campbell
Acknowledgments
IntroductionStijn Alsteens
Note to the Reader
Catalogue
Artists Active before 1500
Albrecht Dürer and Artists Active in Nuremberg in the Early Sixteenth Century
Artists Active outside Nuremberg in the Early Sixteenth Century
Artists Active in the Mid-Sixteenth Century
Swiss Designers of Stained Glass Active in the Later Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries
Artists Active Mainly in Munich about 1600
Artists Active Mainly in Nuremberg, Prague, and Augsburg about 1600
Two Central European Traditions: The Stammbuch and the Turnierbuch
Artists Active in the Early Seventeenth Century
Artists Born after 1600
Bibliography
Index
Stijn Alsteens is Curator and Freyda Spira is Assistant Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Baetjer, Katharine. "Portrait Painting in England, 1600–1800." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
Koeppe, Wolfram. "Collecting for the Kunstkammer." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
This exhibition is the first to offer an extensive overview of the Museum's holdings of early Central European drawings, many of which were acquired in the last two decades. An emphasis on works by later sixteenth- and seventeenth-century artists is balanced by a selection of German drawings from the fifteenth and earlier sixteenth century, of which some of the most exceptional ones—including works by Albrecht Dürer—entered the Museum with The Robert Lehman Collection in 1975.
Anonymous, Bohemian, 14th century
Date: 1360–80Accession Number: 2003.29
Anonymous, Bohemian, 15th century
Date: ca. 1405–10Accession Number: 2010.119
Germany, Middle Rhine (ca. 1460 - 1470)
Date: ca. 1460-70Accession Number: 1975.1.765
Anonymous, German, 15th century
Date: 1477Accession Number: 31.54.525
Anonymous, German, 16th century
Date: ca. 1490Accession Number: 1998.264
Master of the Drapery Studies (German, Strasbourg, ca. 1470–1500)
Date: ca. 1490Accession Number: 57.32.1
Martin Schongauer (German, Colmar ca. 1435/50–1491 Breisach)
Date: ca. 1480-90Accession Number: 1975.1.872
Albrecht Dürer (German, Nuremberg 1471–1528 Nuremberg)
Date: 1493Accession Number: 1975.1.862
Date: 1498Accession Number: 1975.1.861
