The Identification of a Print Study for a Woodcut in Hieronymus Köler’S Album Amicorum in the British Library Ewa Letkiewicz
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The Identification of a Print Study for a Woodcut in Hieronymus Köler’s Album Amicorum in the British Library Ewa Letkiewicz The British Library holds a unique collection of autograph albums called Album amicorum (book of friends, in German: Stammbuch ). These are made up of bound sheets of white paper, or sometimes vellum, in which portrait prints and signatures could be collected. They were popular from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, especially in Protestant student circles in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and Scandinavia. The entries in these books were commemorative, most frequently marking graduations. The entries were quotations from the works of ancient authors, adages, sayings and wishes, usually in Latin or Greek, and accompanying illustrations, usually small drawings of emblematic or heraldic subjects, or woodcuts in black and white or colour. Both the owner of the album and the authors of entries went to great lengths in the preparation of texts and illustrations, with the result that today they are of art-historical interest and a source of information about the university life of the times. The practice was described by Philipp Melanchthon, the Reformer and friend of Luther: These little books certainly have their uses: above all they remind their owners of people, and at the same time bring to mind the wise teaching which has been inscribed in them, and they serve as a reminder to the younger students to be industrious in order that the professor may inscribe some kind and commemoratory words on parting so that they may always prove themselves brave and virtuous during the remainder of their lives, inspired, even if only through the names of good men, to follow their example. At the same time the inscription itself teaches knowledge of the character of the contributor, and quite often significant passages from otherwise unknown and little-read authors are found in albums. Finally, they record biographical details which would otherwise be forgotten. 1 In this essay I will show how it has proved possible to identify a drawing in the Louvre as a print study for a print found in one of these albums in the British Library, Egerton MS. 1184. Egerton MS. 1184, one of the unique albums in the British Library, is undoubtedly one of the oldest and finest. Owned by Hieronymus Köler of Nuremberg (born 1542), the album came to the British Museum Library in 1850, among 322 albums obtained from the extremely valuable legacy of the Nuremberg antiquarian and bibliophile Erhard Christopher Bezzel (1727-1807), a passionate collector of writings and mementoes concerning the history of his home town. 2 1 Quoted by M. A. E. Nickson, Early Autograph Albums in the British Museum (London, 1979), pp. 9-10. 2 Nickson, pp. 14-15. 1 eBLJ 2009, Article 6 The Identification of a Print Study for a Woodcut in Hieronymus Köler’s Album Amicorum in the British Library The history of Hieronymus Köler’s album begins in the year 1561, when his father, a self- made man who had risen to a high position in the city, sent him to Wittenberg to study, and from there, in 1563 to the University of Tübingen. 3 In the album, which he himself arranged, he collected three hundred entries by his friends and teachers and people of high rank he had contacted in Nuremberg, Wittenberg, Tübingen, Augsburg, Speyer andVienna. The introduction to the album is taken from a Latin poem placed in the Stammbuch owned by Heinrich Moller of Hesse (f. 3rv). Hieronymus Köler copied the poem, adding at the end the Köler family coat of arms (f. 3v), with a Latin motto and an illustration showing Christ and his disciples in a boat during the storm on the sea of Galilee (f. 4r). 4 At the end of the album there is an engraved portrait of Philipp Melanchthon by Albrecht Dürer (f. 210r). Melanchthon described and admired Köler’s album. As the opening entry Köler placed the portrait of the Protestants’ spiritual leader, Martin Luther (f. 1v). One of the first entries in Köler’s book is a dedication with the autograph of the young Mikołaj [Nicholas] Krzysztof Radziwiłł (known as Sierotka, ‘The Orphan’) (1549-1616). 5 Later Grand Marshal of Lithuania, Voivode of the Vilinus voivodship, a memorist, the first entailer of Niasvizh (in Polish: Nie ´s wie z. ), he was the oldest son of Mikołaj the Black and El z. bieta née Szydłowiecka (figs 1 and 2). 6 3 Nickson, p. 14. 4 Quoted in full by Nickson, p. 15 5 The graphic and sculpted portraits of Radziwiłł the Orphan are presented and discussed by T. Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus et Peregrinus. Fundacje Mikołaja Radziwiłła “Sierotki” w Ordynacji Nie´s wieskiej (Warsaw, 1998). His portraits on medals have also been preserved. These are mentioned by F. Bentkowski, Spis medalów polskich lub z dziejami krainy polskiej stycznymi (Warsaw, 1835), p. 9, items 28, 29, 30. Medals of ‘the Orphan’ as a child, a young man and an adult are kept in the the Czapski Department at the National Museum in Kraków and discussed by T. Bernatowicz, Monumenta Variis Radivillorum. Wyposaz. enie zamku nie´swieskiego w ´swietle ´zródeł archiwalnych, cz. i, XVI-XVII wieku (Pozna´n , 1998), p. 28, plates 30-34. The metal imprints of three medals of Radziwiłł can be found in the iconographic collection in the National Museum in Warsaw, Polski Słownik Biograficzny , vol. xxx/2, 1987, p. 350. 6 E. Kotłubaj, Galeria nie´s wiez. ska portretów Radziwiłłowskich (Wilno, 1857), pp. 305-19; Polski Słownik Biograficzny , p. 349. On the distaff side he was the only male heir of the Szydłowiecki family which was extinguished with the death of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. Radziwiłł the Orphan inherited the county of Szydłowiec (1557) and the title Count of Szydłowiec from his grandfather. From his father he inherited the title Duke of Ołyka and Nies´ wiez. Mikołaj the Black was given the title Prince of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation by Emperor CharlesV in 1547, which raised Radziwiłł to the ranks of the European aristocracy. At the same time, by inheritance from Jerzy Illicz, a maternal cousin, he became Count of Mir, Czarnawczyce and Biała: Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus , p. 9. 2 eBLJ 2009, Article 6 The Identification of a Print Study for a Woodcut in Hieronymus Köler’s Album Amicorum in the British Library Fig. 1. Portrait of Miko łaj Krzysztof Radziwi łł . Egerton MS. 1184, f. 5v 3 eBLJ 2009, Article 6 The Identification of a Print Study for a Woodcut in Hieronymus Köler’s Album Amicorum in the British Library Fig. 2. Inscription by Miko łaj Krzysztof Radziwi łł . Egerton MS. 1184, f. 6r 4 eBLJ 2009, Article 6 The Identification of a Print Study for a Woodcut in Hieronymus Köler’s Album Amicorum in the British Library Köler received this entry from the Prince on 15 January 1565. They had met in Tübingen, where they were studying at the time. The portrait is a coloured woodcut, half-length, in three-quarters, facing right. The elements of his attire are shown in detail, as well as his hat, a chain with a medallion around his neck and a book in his hand. In the lower left corner are the initials IZ, which Max Rosenheim interpreted in 1910 as the name of the engraver Jacob Züberlein of Tübingen (1556-1607). 7 Rosenheim’s findings were accepted in Polish literature on the subject. 8 Margaret A. E. Nickson also discusses the coloured portrait of Radziwiłł in her account of Köler’s album amicorum , although no mention is made of the artist or engraver responsible. 9 In the Louvre there is a drawing that corresponds to the engraved portrait of Radziwiłł, but in reverse (fig. 3). 10 Fig. 3. Portrait of Miko łaj Krzysztof Radziwi łł . Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, size 14, 5 cm x 10 cm, catalogue no. INV 18707. Inventaire du Département des Arts graphiques, http:// arts-graphiques.louvre.fr/fo/visite?srv=mfc&idFicheOeuvre=108689 It is a portrait of a currently unidentified young man, on cardboard, in pencil, pen, and black ink. The signature DK appears in the lower right hand corner of the portrait and the drawing is identified as the work of David Kandel (1520-1592), a wood engraver from Strasbourg who was active from 1538. Again the drawing is a three-quarter portrait of a young man, shown from the waist upwards. He is holding a small book in his hands, which are resting on a writing desk (or window sill). 11 What is striking about the drawing is that some particulars have been executed in more detail than others, with the hat and face carefully drawn. The artist has meticulously captured the detail of the decorative cord adorning the hat. Apart from depicting the sitter’s distinctive features, the artist has also rendered his character. The young man’s stiff pose, his cold countenance and pouting lower lip all serve to give the impression that he is proud and distant. The remaining details have been drawn only very sketchily and only a few particulars have been included, such as the embroidery on the sleeve, the decorative links of the chain and the jewel hanging around the young man’s neck (which has been copied and magnified in the upper left corner of the drawing). All these qualities give the impression that this is a sketch for a portrait, or print study, rather than a finished product. These assumptions would seem reasonable when comparing the portrait drawing of the anonymous young man in the Louvre with another example of the finished woodcut portrait of the young Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, to be found in a volume of Greek poems by Martinus Crusius, Martini Crusii Poematum graecorum libri duo, addita eregione partim ipsius conversione partim Leonardi Engelhardi, partim Erhardi cellii, carmine latino , published in Basle by Oporinus in 1566 (fig.