Female Nude, late 16th or early 17th century
South German
Honestone
Technical Glossary
South German
Honestone
6 x 2 5/8 in. (15.1 x 6.5 cm), D. 1/2 in. (1.3 cm)
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.467)
The relief of a female nude seen from behind follows a composition by the great painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). His style was revived in South Germany in the decades around 1600. Although it is dated "1507" and inscribed with the famous Dürer monogram "AD," the proto-Baroque softness of the nude's body indicates that it was carved during this so-called Dürer Renaissance. The object may be identical with a "female nude cut in stone by AD" in the 1607–11 inventory of the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (Relief Allegory, 17.190.745; Celestial Globe, 17.190.636; Apollo, 41.190.534).
