MARTIN SCHONGAUER Christ Enthroned, with two Angels.
Engraving, circa 1475-80. 170x120 mm; 6 3/4x4 3/4 inches. With thread margins outside the narrow border line or trimmed on the border line. A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this exceedingly scarce, early engraving, with very strong contrasts and little to no sign of wear.
According the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., which holds another impression of this engraving, "Christ Enthroned, with two Angels is one of the finest compositions from Schongauer's mature period in a corpus of well over a hundred prints . . . The engraving depicts Christ in his manifestation as God the Father, redeemer of the world. Haloed, crowned, and enthroned, he bears a scepter and an orb, all symbols of celestial royalty. Two angels beneath a canopy draw apart curtains to reveal the figure of the deity bestowing his blessing. In performing this service, the angels also enact a theological metaphor. The Latin word for veil (vela) is the root of the word "revelation," literally "to unveil." Thus, in the modest dimensions of a print, Schongauer has presumed to perform no less than a revelation, as if to evoke the famous passage: 'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face' (1 Corinthians 13:12)."
Provenance: Richard Herrlinger, Vienna, with the blue ink stamp verso (Lugt 5818; according to Lugt, Herrlinger was advised by Joseph Meder, the curator of prints at the Albertina, Vienna, who specialized in early German engravings and was the author of the definitive catalogue raisonné of prints by Albrecht Dürer). Bartsch 16; Lehrs 18.
