Lot 35: ATTRIBUTED TO GEORG SCHWEIGGER (1613-1690)GERMAN, NUREMBERG, CIRCA 1640

PROPERTY FROM THE GUSTAV RAU COLLECTION SOLD TO BENEFIT THE GERMAN COMMITTEE FOR UNICEF SEATED DOG SCRATCHING ITS EAR bronze 14 by 18.5cm., 5½ by 7¼in.

Remagen, Arp Museum, Bahnhof Rolandseck, Das Auge des Sammlers. Kunstkammer Rau, 2009, no. 14

O. Kornhoff, Das Auge des Sammlers. Kunstkammer Rau, exh. cat. Arp Museum, Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Cologne, 2010, p. 78, no. 14

Sotheby's London, 4 July 1991, lot 97

This astoundingly lifelike bronze cast of a dog scratching its ear is a seminal example of German Renaissance artists’ interest in nature. It is a liberal translation in the round of a print by the Master of the Hausbuch, one of the first engravers active around 1450, who, in turn, was probably inspired by figures in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. The aptness with which the dog’s somewhat awkward stretch to reach its ear is modelled does suggest that the sculptor carefully observed a canine at close quarters. He also successfully changed the turn of the head to heighten the plasticity and unity of the composition. The Scratching Dog is among the most famous German animal bronzes of all time. Many casts of differing quality survive but the present bronze is not only finer than most, it is also one of a very small number of enlarged examples. The model’s attribution has been much discussed. In the 19th century it was thought to be the work of Peter Visscher the Elder, one of the heroes of the Gothic revival at the time. The association with Visscher is still adopted by some authors, but more critical examinations, such as those of Weihrauch and Berger and Krahn (op.cit.), suggest that the model is the product of the Dürer-revival around 1600. Berger and Krahn suggest an attribution to Georg Schweigger, a revivalist sculptor who often relied on earlier sources. They convincingly compare the execution of the eyes, fur, whiskers and veins to the way Schweigger’s portrait medallions are rendered and therefore date the prime examples of the Scratching Dog to the 1630s. Casts of similar quality, but invariably at a smaller scale, are in the museums in Berlin, Brunswick, Cleveland, Dresden, Munich and Vienna. Each differ from the others in the reworking of the wax model and chasing, particularly in the area around the head. RELATED LITERATURE H. Weihrauch, Europaische Bronzestatuetten. 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Brunswick, 1967, p. 286, fig. 343; W. D. Wixom, Renaissaince bronzes from Ohio collections, exh. cat. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, no. 180; Von Leben im späten Mittelalter. Der Hausbuchmeister oder Meister des Amsterdamer Kabinetts, exh. cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 1985, p. 161, no. 78; U. Berger and V. Krahn, Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock. Katalog der Sammlung, cat. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, 1994, pp. 274-276, nos. 222-223