Christoph Gertner ADORATION of the SHEPHERDS
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Christoph Gertner Arnstadt, Thuringia circa 1580-1620 ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS Christoph Gertner Arnstadt, Thuringia, circa 1580-1620 Adoration of the Shepherds Oil on black slate and agate 26.4 x 13.9 cm The present painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds, oil on black stone (slate or basalt?) and agate (according to the owner and conservator), 26,4 X 13.9 cm, can be unequivocally attributed to Christoph Gertner, even on the basis of photographs. It represents the same subject (shepherds, Mary, and Joseph adoring the Christ Child) has almost identical dimensions (26.4 x 13.9 cm versus 26.5 x 14 cm) to a painting that has been attributed to Christoph Gertner, now in a private collection in New York.1 It is also similarly constructed. In both instances a circular piece of lighter colored stone, in the New York example alabaster, has been inserted into an opening and conjoined to darker colored stone, in New York, black marble. With the exception of the head of the Virgin, the poses and gestures of the figures in both instances are identical. The touch (with impasto highlights on the edges of the folds, and the black of the stone used for shadows, for example). The painting under consideration is however not a copy of the New York version, but a another version of the invention. The composition has been altered to concentrate on the Shepherds and Holy Family at the bottom; the shepherd on the left has been pushed to the edge of the composition, and the amount of the scene in heaven has been diminished slightly. The face of the Virgin has been painted somewhat differently: she looks more down to the right as well. The Virgin’s garment is also a carmine red color in the painting under consideration, versus white in the New York version. Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 3 These two paintings on stone are related to a very similar composition of the same subject in Dresden (Staatliche Kunstsasmmlungen, Kuperstich-Kabinett, C1963-1969, pen and dark brown ink, brush and grey brown wash, over metalpoint and graphite). Interestingly, the drawing (46.9 x 28.8 cm) is considerably larger than either of the paintings. Several details of the figures have been changed. The drawing enlarges and extends the composition upward, adds angels, humans, and animals (a dog to the lower right) and seems to have been squared for transfer; this suggests that it may have been a modello for a larger painting.2 Gertner may have been born in Arnstadt, Thuringia (according to a commonly read A in the monogram he uses, CGA) probably in the 1580s, and in the early 1600s served several courts, including those of Wolfenbüttel, Oldenburg, Bückeburg, and the administrator of Halberstadt; traces of him are lost in the 1620s. This painting, like the other in New York and the drawing, reveal his knowledge of Prague court art, and especially the compositions of Hans von Aachen. This is easy to understand, because Gertner’s patron Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel was a court councilor of Rudolf II in Prague, where he lived for a time in the house of Hans von Aachen, by whom he owned several works. Gertner no doubt was familiar with Von Aachen’s works. Von Aachen also painted several such paintings on stone, sometimes combined from several pieces. In her book on painting on stone, Hana Seifertová notes that in his earlier painted oeuvre Gertner opted for slate tablets (this observation can be slightly refined) because of his preference for nocturnal scenes. The discovery of the present painting reinforces this observation. Another of her observations made in regard to the New York version, which she accepts, illustrates and discusses, can also be reinforced in regard to the way in which Gertner uses the stones to suggest the miracle of the nativity: This remarkable combination attests to Gertner’s departure from the conventional use of stone tablets in painting, as well as the artist’s own originality, recasting in a manner wholly his own the inspiring force of Prague’s art scene.3 Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann Notes 1. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, “Christoph Gertner, Adoration of the Shepherds,” in Jean-Luc Baroni, Master Paintings and Sculpture, an exhibition at Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd., New York, 2003, cat. No. 7, illustrated. 2. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, “Addenda to Christoph Gertner,” Studia Rudolphina, 10, 2010, 122-128, especially 124-126. 3. Hana Seifertová, Malby na kameni/Paintings on Stone, Prague, Národní Galerie v Praze, 2007, p. 141. Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 4 Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 5 Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 6 Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 7 Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 8 Addenda to Christoph Gertner Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann While Jürgen Zimmer is probably best known for his studies of Joseph Heintz the Elder,1 he has also shed light on many other aspects of art in Central Europe c. 1600, including several relatively unfamiliar artists who had contact with Rudolfine Prague. Among them is Christoph Gertner. Gertner has attracted serious attention since the 1960’s. Friedrich Thöne, Heinrich Geissler, Hilde Lietzmann, and Hana Seifertova, among others, have helped to establish the contours of Gertner’s oeuvre and career.2 Zimmer’s article of 1984 is, however, the largest and most complete essay on Gertner.3 In it Zimmer also provides a full catalogue of Gertner’s oeuvre in the form of a list (Verzeichnis) that is really a catalogue raisonné, but which with his characteristic modesty he called “unkritisch-kritisch”. Although other paintings and drawings by Gertner, some of them with quite interesting content, have emerged on the market, or have otherwise been published in the past quarter century, Zimmer’s essay remains fundamental to the study of this artist.4 The present paper offers homage and gratitude in the form of a contribution of a few additions to his oeuvre. According to inscriptions Gertner made on his drawings, he was born in Arnstadt, Thuringia, probably c. 1575, to reckon from the dates on his earliest drawings. The first such drawing plausibly to be attributed to him is dated 1600.5 Clear mention of Gertner is found in a document of 4 June 1604, which states that he is to receive a salary from the court in Wolfenbüttel, also indicating that he would be paid in addition for individual works that he might supply.6 In 1605 Gertner was however already active for the court in Bückeburg, for whose Schlosskapelle he later, in 1610, delivered a painting of the Last Judgment. In 1617 he worked for Count Anton Günther of Oldenburg, painting pictures in the Saal of his Schloss. In 1621 Gertner entered the service of Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg, Administrator of Magdeburg and Halle. Gertner’s last signed drawing is dated 1623, but it not known exactly where or when he died.7 Gertner’s career was thus closely connected with a number of the smaller German courts, but it has also long been recognized that the content and style of his drawings in particular are related to works by artists who were active at the imperial court in Prague. Gertner’s drawings frequently derive, for example, from Heintz. If the inscription “CG” on a drawing of a female figure dated 1600 in fact identifies him as its author, Gertner would have already been responding to Heintz’s works by that date: the drawing is inscribed with Heintz’s monogram, suggesting it is a copy after a sheet by him. Many other drawings and paintings evince Gertner’s familiarity with works by other Prague artists. Gertner’s paintings also seem to have attracted some attention at the imperial court, since two of them probably belonged to the collections of Rudolf II.8 Gertner could have met Duke Heinrich Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in Prague, if he did not even accompany him there. The duke occupied an important position in imperial administration, and frequently visited Prague from 1600 until his death in 1613. Heinrich Julius acquired several paintings by Prague school artists, notably by Von Aachen and his workshop, and ordered works from Heintz and Adrian de Fries. Von Aachen also served in a diplomatic capacity for the duke. A personal link with Von Aachen is moreover clear, because the duke even stayed with him on one of his sojourns in Prague.9 Tel: +5411 4816 2787 / 5411 4816 2790 – [email protected] 9 In any case, in the light of Von Aachen’s connection with Heinrich Julius and Gertner’s entry into his service by 1604, it is not surprising that Gertner also was affected by the work of Von Aachen. The drawings to be attributed to him here, all in Dresden, where several other Gertner drawings are to be found, attest to aspects of Von Aachen’s impact. They may all be related to Von Aachen. Fig. 1 Christoph Gertner, Annunciation, Kupferstich- Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. First of these is a drawing of the Annunciation.10 (Fig. 1) As Rudolf Arthur Peltzer noticed long ago, this drawing is closely related to Von Aachen’s signed and dated painting of 1605 that depicts this subject (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen).11 This drawing bears both the initials H V A, and an inscription with that artist’s name. The position of the head of the Virgin and the placement of the cherubs above differ in the drawing and painting, however.