(feed In fMlep Library BULLETIN DEC h 74 ALLEN^ MEMORIAL ART MUSEUM OBERLIN COLLEGE XXXU, 1, 1974-75 ALLEN MEMORIAL ART MUSEUM BULLETIN VOLUME XXXII, NUMBER 1 1974-75 Contents Wolfgang Stechow 1896-1974 ...... 3 Acquisitions: 1973-74 by Richard E. Spear ...... (, Accessions --------- 16 St. Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers, an Early Work by the Master of St. G-udule by Maryan W. Ainsworth ....... 22 A Landscape Handscroll by Hsiao Yiin-ts'ung by Daphne Lange Rosenzweig ----- 34 Oberlin's Acquisitions Ethics Policy ----- 57 Notes Exhibitions 1974-75 60 Oberlin-Ashland Archaeological Society 60 Baldwin Seminar - - - - - - - 61 Friends of Art Concert Series - - - - - 61 Friends of Art Film Series ------ 61 Oberlin Friends of Art ------ 62 Published twice a year by the Allen Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. $6.00 a year, this issue $3.00; mailed free to members of the Oberlin Friends of Art. Back issues available on microfilm from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Printed by the Press of the Times, Oberlin, Ohio Wolfgang Stechow 1896-1974 Wolfgang Stechow Wolfgang Stechow, editor of this Bulletin, a mystery to his colleagues in Europe, and even beloved colleague, teacher and friend to a multi­ to those in the larger American universities. tude of persons both at Oberlin and throughout The presence of the museum, and also that of the world of art, died on October 12 at the age the Conservatory, had much to do with his of seventy-eight. When word was received of his staying, of course. But those who have taught sudden death in Princeton, where he had a teach­ at Oberlin any length of time and have en­ ing appointment for the fall term, the current countered generation after generation of the issue was already in proof. Professor Stechow special kind of student that Oberlin attracts — served as editor of the Bulletin from the fall of bright, inquisitive, eager, receptive to the warmth 1967 to the present, but throughout his Oberlin and understanding that radiated from such a career, that is, from 1940 on, he took an active man—will realize what kept him here. part in encouraging contributions to the maga­ Those who knew Wolf well in his working zine and was himself its most prolific contributor. life at the museum will remember with gratitude In fact, Vol. I, no. 1, which appeared in June and affection his gentle and tolerant, yet probing 1944, was devoted entirely to his important study and insistent way of urging upon the rest of us of a newly acquired cassone panel. a particularly desirable work that had appeared Professor Stechow, though in the twelfth year on the market. A listing of what was acquired of his retirement from Oberlin College, contin­ through his encouragement would be too long ued to play a major role in the life of the Mu­ for these pages, and an exhibition of such works seum and the College: through recommenda­ too large for our gallery space. He had a de­ tions of acquisitions, in soliciting donations, by manding and accurate eye for quality, and set a research and publication, with generous gifts to standard for us all. During the last summer of the collection, and in devoted service on the his life, when he and Ursula were travelling museum purchase committee. Our loss is im­ abroad, he saw an exquisite Dutch landscape measurable. And because he seemed to have in the London trade. It always embarrassed access to some fountain of youth that was kept Wolf a bit to find "one more Dutch picture" secret from the rest of us, we w7ere unprepared that might fill a gap in the already ample for this sudden end. That so distinguished a Dutch collections. "This is a real 'Lugt' picture," scholar stayed at Oberlin throughout the main he wrote. We might say, now that he is gone, part of his teaching career may well have been "it was a real 'Wolf picture." It is thanks to him, of course, that the collections are so strong in tion which will be included in a forthcoming Dutch painting, and in Netherlandish and issue of Apollo, devoted to the Oberlin museum. German prints. The maxim of building upon Just before Wolf left for Princeton in Septem­ strength, always closely adhered to at Oberlin, ber, one of our staff remarked to him, in pass­ meant building not only on the strength of the ing, "It's marvelous that you can continue to collection, but upon Wolf Stechow's strength: teach and give so much of yourself, but don't his presence and his scholarship. His appoint­ you ever want to slow down?" His answer was, ment as Honorary Curator of the collection in "I have to teach. I could not do otherwise." He 1973 only made official what had been an un­ looked well and he felt well the last months of acknowledged fact for nearly thirty-five years. his life and anticipated his semester at Princeton Professor Stechow had just completed the with great pleasure. He was busy until the end, manuscript of a catalogue of the museum's draw7- and that is the way he would have had it. Some ings, a project undertaken with matching funds of his closest friends died with equal sudden­ from two devoted friends and the National En­ ness, and he never spoke of the manner of their dowment for the Arts. He also had just finished death but with a sense of gladness. We are an article on landscape paintings in our collec­ thankful he was granted the same mercy. C.H.Y. Having had the extraordinary privilege of giving this one a B minus? This paper does not working beside Wolf since 1940, I should like deserve more than a C because that boy could to add to the above expression of what we all do so much better." feel a word or two more about his teaching. He All of his thousands of students responded loved teaching all students, and he gave the not only to Wolfgang Stechow's persuasive visual same kind of thoughtful consideration to the analyses of pictures, but equally as much (even papers of swimming stars and future business­ though few of them will have realized it) to men as he did to the theses of mature art his­ his disciplined thinking, his unwavering exacti­ torians. Most of his students, and perhaps even tude as a scholar, a teacher and a connoisseur. colleagues, would find it hard to believe how (While he knew the market well, he scrupulous­ much of his time this internationally distin­ ly refused to enhance the commercial value of guished scholar gave to reading papers and blue- an art work by putting his name to an expertise.) books. And he never stopped worrying himself The straight, aristocratic bearing that Wolf main­ about that delicate task of evaluating someone tained to his last day owed far less to his early else's work. "Would you mind reading this experience as a German army officer than to the essay? Do you think it is really worth an A minus, rectitude by which he lived, and the wit and or is it only a B plus? Would I be justified in grace in which he cloaked it. E.H.J. Acquisitions: 1973-74 The statistics of new acquisitions are easily earlier attitude towards medals, when they were determined: during the fiscal year 1973-74, ap­ hung on chains as simple decorative objects. proximately 125 works of art were bought by While the Duke's daughter (1535-63) is por­ or donated to the Oberlin Museum. Less ob­ trayed in profile in high relief on the principal jective is any choice of the "more important" side of the bronze, Diana at the hunt, and Pluto pieces, but the summary nature of this review of and Persephone with Cerberus are depicted on recently-accessioned works necessitates a rather the reverse (further research will clarify the rigorous selection. The character of what I con­ iconographical relationship between Diana and sider to be the main acquisitions prompts dis­ lppolita). The lively, complex action on the cussion based on chronology rather than medium, reverse contrasts markedly with the quiet, ideal­ for certain paintings, drawings, sculptures and ized pose of lppolita, but in each instance prints form particularly provocative groups. Leoni's consummate skill in modelling on a It is not surprising that outstanding works small scale is manifest. from the Renaissance are seldom available. Oberlin's collection of eighteenth century Nevertheless, a fine engraving of Apollo and European art was significantly strengthened Marsyas by the Master of the Die, an anony­ through this year's acquisitions. Gregorio de mous printmaker in Raphael's (or more accur­ Ferrari's magnificent drawing for a ceiling in ately, Marcantonio's) circle, active in the 1530's, the Palazzo Balbi-Senarega in Genoa (actually was acquired; but the most important Renais­ executed at the very end of the seventeenth sance purchase was Leone Leoni's signed medal century but highly indicative of changing taste of lppolita di Ferdinando Gonzaga (figs. 1, 2). ca. 1700), was fully analyzed by Mary New- This particular bronze by Leoni (1509-90), one come in the previous issue of the Bulletin,1 so of the outstanding medallists of the sixteenth there is no need to discuss it anew. century, is rare. Oberlin's impression is very Newcome speaks of the "gay, witty, rococo good, marred only by slight wear and that not- spirit" of Gregorio de Ferrari's drawing; its uncommon hole at the top, which records an decorative-architectural motifs can actually be Mary Newcome, "Et nos cedamus Amori: A Draw­ ing by Gregorio de Ferrari for the Palazzo Balbi- Senarega in Genoa," AMAM Bulletin, XXXI, 1973- 74, pp.