Live Auction 7375The Genius of the German Renaissance: Prints by Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Lot 129

Albrecht Dürer

Philipp Melanchthon (B. 105; M., Holl. 104; S.M.S. 101)

Closed4 December 2007

Price Realised

GBP 4,375

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Albrecht Dürer
Philipp Melanchthon (B. 105; M., Holl. 104; S.M.S. 101)
engraving, circa 1526, a good, warmly printed Meder c impression, printing with inky plate edges, watermark Small Jug (M. 158), with thread margins, occasional tiny touches of pen and ink to the platemark, pale staining, two horizontal creases visible on the reverse, otherwise in good condition
S. 176 x 132 mm.

With P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London.

Specialist note

Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) completed his studies at the universities of Heidelberg and Tübingen at the age of 15. At the age of 21 he became professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, where he met Martin Luther and became his friend and supporter in the cause of the reformation. In 1518 and again in 1525 and 1526 Melanchthon came to Nuremberg, where he was to establish a new, secular school on behalf of the City Council. A close friend of Pirckheimer's, he also came to know Dürer and to admire his art. It seems that he owned a large, if not complete collection of Dürer's prints. The inscription reads: Dürer could record Philipp's looks from life, but his mind the artist's hand could not grasp.