Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Beast with Two Horns Like a Lamb from the Apocalypse, woodcut, 1496-7. Reference: Bartsch 74, monogram lower center.

An impression from the 1511 Latin Text edition, with the Flower and Triangle watermark (Meder watermark 127).

h: 15.5 x w: 11.1 in / h: 39.4 x w: 28.2 cm

Provenance:

P & D Colnaghi; Knoedler and Company (with their stock numbers verso), ex. Collection Jeffrey Weiss, Dallas, Texas.

A superb impression in excellent condition, trimmed just outside, on or in places just inside the borderline, some very light staining, archival window mat.

This woodcut depicts Revelation 13: (1) Then I saw a beast come up from the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy… (11) And then I saw another beast coming out of the ground, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. (13) And he prompted great portents, even that fire pour down from the sky to the earth for all men to see. (14) And I looked, and beheld a white cloud, and sitting upon the cloud one who was like the Son of Man, wearing upon his head a crown of gold, and in his hands a sharp sickle. (17) And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he is also having a sharp sickle.

References: Bartsch 77, Meder 72 IIa (of f). In excellent condition. Watermark: High Crown (Meder watermark 20). 330 x 230 mm.

Very fine, with the exquisite detailing characteristic of only the earliest of the Meder IIa impressions.

Provenance:

private collection, Germany
Christie’s London June 24, 1986, lot 21
private collection USA

Panofsky identified the literary source for Nemesis as “a Latin poem of Politian which synthesizes the classical goddess of retribution with fickle Fortune: clad in a white mantle, she hovers in the void, tearing the air with strident wings, driven hither and thither by the gales, and always wielding the goblet and the bridle – symbols of favor and castigation – with a contemptuous smile.” The landscape has been identified as the Tyrolese town of Chiuso.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), The Holy Kinship with Lute Playing Angels, woodcut, 1511. References: Bartsch 97, Meder, Hollstein 216. In generally good condition, trimmed to the border, a horizontal fold, small made up repair lower center, other slight repaired breaks near left margin, scattered thin areas verso, 208 x 210 mm, 8 1/8 x 8 1/4 inches, archival mounting.

A fine strong Meder A/B (of D) impression, with clear black detailing and considerable gauffrage.  Before the break and displacement of the numeral 1 of the date (which Meder notes is characteristic of the B impressions) but without any discernible watermark (B impressions characteristically have no watermark).

Provenance: unidentified collector’s mark (brown cross on circle stamp) verso (not in Lugt).

The Holy Kinship depicts the complex relationships of the family of Saint Anne, the mother of Mary and wife of Joachim. Joseph, Mary and Saint Anne’s three husbands (in the late medieval period she was thought to have had three) are pictured, as well as Anne’s two other daughters. Saint Anne is typically shown as here, holding a book.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Joachim and the Angel, from the Life of the Virgin, woodcut, 1504. Reference: Bartsch 78, Hollstein 190. A Meder a impression, with a High Crown watermark (Meder 20). In generally good condition apart from some light speckled foxing; paper disturbed at upper right corner due to the sharp edge of the top branch (described by Meder as indicative of an early impression); small rust spot at one of the upper branches; thin spot at upper right corner; an old horizontal fold visible verso. Narrow to thread margins, 11 3/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 11 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches.

Meder notes the High Crown watermark (Meder 20) as characteristic of the Meder a impressions.

A fine Meder a proof impression, before the Latin Edition of 1511, with considerable gauffrage (embossing).

Provenance:

H.S. Theobald (Lugt 1375), probably sold at Gutekunst Stuttgart 12-14 May 1910 (Sale 769) as part of a complete Life of the Virgin in proof impressions. This sale is noted in Hollstein.

S. Barden (Lugt 218) and another monogram GB (not in Lugt).

Christie’s London, Sale of Old Master and Modern Prints, June, 2005.

Durer here recounts the period when Joachim had gone to the wilderness, having left the Temple in shame after his offering – in the hope’s of having a child with his wife Anne after some 20 years – was rejected by the high priest. As Anne was learning from an angel that she would bear a child – Mary – an angel appeared to Joachim telling him that Anne would bear a child and that he should go back to Jerusalem. In this woodcut Durer captures the moment when Joachim is on his knees in the wilderness praying, just before the angel (holding the cloth) annoints him.