Lot 503 | Hans Burgkmair | Christ on the Cross with Mary and St. John Evangelist

BURGKMAIR, HANS
Augsburg 1473 - 1531

Title: Christ on the Cross with Mary and St. John Evangelist.
Left wing exterior of the All Saints' Retable from 1507 from the convent of St. Catherine in Augsburg, today the Augsburg State Gallery in St. Catherine's Church.
Technique: Tempera (?) on wood.
Mounting: Parquetted.
Measurement: 90 x 60.5cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

Expert opinion:
Alfred Stange, Bonn, 12th May 1954 as a copy;
Michaela Schedl, Tübingen, 18th March 2022.

Provenance:
until 1816 in the original location in the convent St. Catherine in Augsburg;
until 1963 Collection Arthur Hauth, Dusseldorf;
Auction Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 14./15.03.1963, Lot 5;
Art dealer L.N. Malmedé, Cologne;
Auction Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 5.-7.06. 1975, Lot 31;
Private ownership, Germany.

For the first time, the Bonn art historian and expert on Old German painting Alfred Stange confirmed on 12 May 1954 that the panel shown here was "an impeccable work by Hans Burgkmair the Elder". Stange, commissioned by the important Düsseldorf collector Arthur Hauth, is said to have closely examined the Crucifixion scene and recognised in it the missing part of the Augsburg All Saints' Retable. This altar, preserved almost entirely in its original location, is signed by the artist and dated 1507.
In 1807, after secularisation, the altar was still described as complete and the crucifixion scene of the wing was explicitly mentioned. It was not until 1816 that the left wing exterior was considered lost; in addition to the Crucifixion shown here, the upper part of the wing, this also applies to the lower part with the depiction of St. Catherine and St. Dominic. The right wing exterior shows the Resurrection at the top (against the same midnight blue background and with the same characteristic stones on the floor) and the two saints John and Paul at the bottom.