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Christ on the Cross

Christ on the Cross

Anoniem (in circa 1375-1400)

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Specifications

Title Christ on the Cross
Material and technique Pen and brown ink, on fine parchment
Object type
Drawing > Two-dimensional object > Art object
Location This object is in storage
Dimensions Height 209 mm
Width 134 mm
Artists Draughtsman: Anoniem
Accession number I 189 recto (PK)
Credits Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (former Koenigs collection), 1940
Department Drawings & Prints
Acquisition date 1940
Creation date in circa 1375-1400
Inscriptions ‘Ad Virgam/ Virgam lava sepe cum vino deco[…]/ Salviae mac[…]/ Item avis cucurbutte sicce/ Sanat unlcera virgae etiam patri[…]/ Ad lubrices/ Ut humbricis aures […]/ Patieti bibere lac/ purum tribus/ Aut puathor duebus, friuta die mau[…]/ Ei abeva trita bibere cum aceto/ Ad tam magnum tonitruum qui/ Expurgiscitus non dormir sed mortum/ Sonttum igitur valde est/ So[…] placere querimus quos/ Non placere domino scimus/ Nec sibi met ipsi/ Presus est qui semet ipsum/ Quotidie exquirere atque/ Cognossere solitibus non est’ (pen and black ink, 15th-C. handwriting); ‘Ego frater […] habeo […] unum librum/ Ego frater […] habeo unum librum de quo non/ Non bene […] eclesia […] Gaudet/ […] animo facet qua […] se in alto auget/ Sunt tria qua […]/ salmon[…] sap[…] veer[…]/ Pauper/ Superbia est eletio penitiosa quae inferiorem desp[…]/ Atque […] pareus sataget donia[…]’ (verso, pen and black ink, 14th-C. handwriting)
Collector Collector / Franz Koenigs
Mark G.C. Rossi ( L.2212) deest, F.W. Koenigs (L.1023a)
Provenance Cavaliere G.C. Rossi (2nd half 19th century, L.2212), Rome; his sale, Stuttgart (Gutekunst) 17.03.1886, lot 1333 (anon. Italian, 12th century, DM 11 to [...]); - ; Hepner; - ; Franz W. Koenigs (1881-1941, L.1023a), Haarlem, acquired in 1927 (Italian, early 14th century); D.G. van Beuningen (1877-1955), Rotterdam, acquired with the Koenigs Collection in 1940 and donated to Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Exhibitions Amsterdam 1934, no. 442; Paris/Rotterdam/Haarlem 1962, no. 1, pl.1
Internal exhibitions Italiaanse tekeningen in Nederlands bezit (1962)
Research Show research Italian Drawings 1400-1600
Literature Amsterdam 1934, no. 442 (anon. Italian, 2nd half 13th C.); Degenhart 1950a, p. 98, fig. 23 (Italian, 14th C.); Paris/Rotterdam/Haarlem 1962, no. 1, pl.1; Bagnarol 2004, pp. 40-42, fig. 14.
Material
Object
Geographical origin Italy > Southern Europe > Europe

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Entry catalogue Italian Drawings 1400-1600

Author: Klazina Botke

The crucified Christ on this sheet is Byzantine in style, but the addition of grey wash in the folds of the loincloth demonstrates that the drawing is later than that and thus may be a copy after an earlier work. An unusual and possibly unique detail is the lock of hair hanging over Christ’s outstretched right arm. Mary and John are seated below the Cross with their hands folded around their knees, which unfortunately is no longer clearly visible since the sheet has been trimmed at the bottom. This motif is found elsewhere, such as in a thirteenth-century Crucifixion fresco (1275) in Santa Viscovio in Stimigliano.[1] It is partly for that reason that Degenhart assumes that our drawing is a fourteenth-century copy after a thirteenth-century model.[2] The partially seen figure to the left of the Cross is Ecclesia catching Christ’s blood in a chalice. Francis Wormald believes that this crowned man may have been borrowed from a twelfth-century model.[3] Another unusual motif is the crown that has been placed on the horizontal beam of the Cross instead of on Christ’s head. Wormald suggests that this detail must have been taken from an even earlier, eleventh-century source. The scene is thus probably a potpourri of elements from eleventh-, twelfth- and thirteenth-century works that were combined by an artist in the late fourteenth century.

The Latin texts beside and below the Cross probably date from the fifteenth century and consist of miscellaneous items including medical prescriptions and moralistic proverbs.[4] Among them is a scratched-out passage, possibly from the fourteenth century, which was apparently removed to free up space on the parchment for reuse. The verso contains fourteenth-century annotations that are probably related to a legal agreement.[5] The sheet may have been the endpaper of a manuscript. In any case it bears a resemblance to similar sheets in the thirteenth-century Saxon codex in Wolfenbüttel.[6]

Footnotes

[1] See the correspondence between Millard Meiss and Hendrik Hoetink of 18 January 1962; Paris/Rotterdam/Haarlem 1962, no. 1; See also Van Marle 1927-28, p. 14 and fig. 15. 

[2] Degenhart 1950a, p. 98. The sheet comes from the collection of G.C. Rossi, and was still being described at the sale of his collection (Stuttgart, 17 March 1866, lot 1333) as ‘Pergament. Christus am Kreuz, auf beiden Seiten anbetende Heilige. 4o(hoog). Sehr interessante Federzeichnung aus dem 12. Jahrhundert. Italienisch. Links etwas defekt und verschnitten’.

[3] See the correspondence between Francis Wormald and Hendrik Hoetink of 16 January 1962. Carl Nordenfalk thinks that the Ecclesia figure may have been added by the same hand that wrote the texts. He dates the drawing to the second half of the thirteenth century, see the correspondence between Chris Nordenfalk and Hendrik Hoetink of 9 December 1961. 

[4] Paris/Rotterdam/Haarlem 1962, no.1.

[5] Handwritten annotations by Hendrik Hoetink, c.1962 (?). 

[6] Ibidem; Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 61.2 August. 8°; Heinemann-Nr. 3662. See Hahnloser 1929. This was already noted by Van Regteren Altena, date unknown.  

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