220 Wegmann

Chapter 6 Glances into Stone: Hans von ’s Paintings on Stone

Susanne Wegmann

On 25 June 1611, Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647)—the enterprising merchant, art agent, and diplomat closely tied to the ruling houses of his time—in a letter to Philip II, Duke of Pomerania, makes the following remarks with regard to a black stone tablet painted on by Hans von Aachen (1552-1615):

(…) but those who do not understand art will not respect it, just like (…) the little tablet on black stone, a painting by Hans von Aachen, of Christ lying in the grave, served by two angels. The way the two candles are placed, however, has been added in a papist manner and there is nothing written of the two lights at the entombment of Christ in the Holy Scripture.1

Hainhofer, whose critique in this passage of the ‘papist’ iconographic formula clearly demarcates him as a bible-abiding Protestant, describes here a tablet which scholarship has unequivocally related to a black marble plate painted on by Hans von Aachen that is part of the art collection of the Benedictine Kremsmünster Abbey [Plate 23].2 The plate—measuring 16.5 by 22 cm, signed

1 Philipp Hainhofer, Letter to Philip II, Duke of Pomerania, cf. Oscar Doering, Des Augsburger Patriciers Philipp Hainhofer Beziehungen zum Herzog Philipp II. von Pommern-Stettin, Correspondenzen aus den Jahren 1610-1619, Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit, Neue Folge, vol. 6 (, 1894), p. 148: “wer aber die Kunst nit verstehet wurds nit achten, so wol (…) daß Täflin auf schwartzen stain von hans von Ach gemahlt, daß ist wie Christus im grab liget, vnd 2 Engel Ihme aufwarten, die 2 liechter aber so darbei stehen ist auf Papistische art hinzu gemachet worden, und würd von den liechtern bei der begrebtnuß Christi in hailiger schrifft sonst nichts gelesen.” 2 Joachim Jacoby, Hans von Aachen (1552-1615) ( and Berlin, 2000), pp. 116-18, cat. 24. Hana Seifertová, Malby na kameni—umělecký experiment v 16. a na začátku 17. století/Paintings on Stone—An Artistic Experiment in the 16th and Early 17th Centuries (, 2007), pp. 76-77. Hans von Aachen (1552-1615): Hofkünstler in Europa, ed. Thomas Fusenig, exhibition catalogue, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen (Berlin and Munich, 2010), pp. 152-53, cat. 34 (Joachim Jacoby).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004361492_010 Hans von Aachen’s Paintings on Stone 221 by Hans von Aachen on the bottom right, the date given as 1594 (“HVA. 94”)— was bought for the monastery’s art collection on the Augsburg art market in 1877. It is not possible to trace its provenance further back.3 From the corre- spondence between Hainhofer and Philip II it remains unclear whether he means to offer the plate to the Duke as a possible purchase or whether he is drawing up an inventory of the works on their way to the latter.4 Hans von Aachen, born in , might be considered the most impor- tant representative north of the Alps of painting on stone materials. His connections to , where the Medici were among his patrons, to the Fugger family in Augsburg, and to William V, Duke of , certainly commended him for the appointment as court painter for Rudolf II in Prague. While he had made a name for himself primarily as portraitist, he proved to be among the most versatile court painters at the Court in Prague. In the following, particular focus will be placed on his experiments with the materiality of various picto- rial grounds.5 The marble plate in Kremsmünster presents an unusual iconography, con- sidered by Joachim Jacoby as Hans von Aachen’s innovation. Not only would Hans von Aachen repeat it in different media and on different support materi- als, but it was also taken up by other artists.6 The observer is granted a view

3 Die Kunstdenkmäler des Benediktinerstiftes Kremsmünster. Teil 2: Die stiftlichen Sammlungen und die Bibliothek, ed. Hans Gertele-Grenadenberg. Österreichische Kunsttopographie, vol. 43 (Vienna. 1977), p. 98, n. 28. 4 The correspondence is presented only in excerpts in Doering’s edition, cf. Doering, Des Augsburger Patriciers. 5 Concerning Hans von Aachen’s artistic context and his patrons prior to his appointment at the Prague Court: Jacoby, Hans von Aachen (1552-1615), pp. 8-44. Eliška Fučikova, “Das Leben,” in Hans von Aachen (1552-1615): Hofkünstler in Europa, edited by Thomas Fusenig, exhibition catalogue, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen (Berlin and Munich, 2010), pp. 3-8. Fučikova, “Die Malerei,” in Hans von Aachen (1552-1615): Hofkünstler in Europa, pp. 13-26. 6 Jacoby, Hans von Aachen (1552-1615), pp. 116-20, cat. 24-25. The composition was disseminated through an engraving by Raphael Sadeler [Joachim Jacoby, Hans von Aachen (Rotterdam, 1995), cat. 38]. Also see the different iconographic repetitions and variations on a large-format (115 × 255 cm) slate plate by Paolo Piazza, , Pinacoteca Capitolina; on a small (21 × 28 cm) oval slate plate (Milano, Sgl. Giulini); on amethyst by a Venetian (or Prague) master in the Milano collection Giulini, cf.: Pietra Dipinta. Tesori nascosti del ‘500 e del ‘600 da una col- lezione privata milanese ed. Marco Bona Castellotti, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan (Milan, 2000), p. 173, cat. 139. Anne-Laure Collomb, “La Peinture sur pierre en Italie 1530-1630” (PhD diss., University of Lyon, 2006), pp. 30, 39, fig. 10, 129. In 1601, Paolo Piazza visited Bohemia to work at the Court of Rudolf II, cf. Seifertová, Malby na kameni, p. 67; hence the slate plate from after 1611 ascribed to him might be influenced directly by Hans von Aachen’s composition.