Lot 132: German School, early 16th Century

A king and an emperor standing beside their coat-of-arms ( recto ); An emperor standing next to his coat-of-arms ( verso ) inscribed 'Leder' (four times, recto and verso ) and with color annotations, with inscription 'U.Vo.' red chalk, pen and brown ink 71/2 x 51/2 in. (190 x 142 mm.) PROVENANCE John Talman, his code and numbers '37.+'. NOTES This drawing is connected to the bronze statues built for the tomb of the Emperor Maximilian I in the Hofkirche in Innsbruck (E.F. Bange, Die Deutschen Bronzestatuetten des 16. Jahrhunderts, Berlin, 1949, pp. 45-58). The scheme, concieved by Maximilian as early as 1502, included originally 40 statues of his ancestors beginning with Julius Caesar and ending with his children, 34 busts of Roman Emperors and 100 statuettes of the Habsburg family. The official court painter Gilg Sesselschreiber was put in charge of the commission, but various other artists worked on it. Drer and Veit Stoss I provided some of the designs and Hans Leinberger, J”rg Muscat and Leonhard Magt produced the sculptures. Peter Leiminger was originally in charge of the casting but when Sesselschreiber was dismissed in 1518, Peter Vischer the Elder and Stefan Godl took over the task. In 1520 Stefan Goll and the sculptor Magd were put in charge of the realisation of the tomb. The work was stopped again in 1534 at Goll's death and was only resumed in 1548 when Gregor L”ffler, the best known caster in Southern Germany, agreed to take on the commission. Christoph Amberger was then asked to design ten statues, with Veit Arnberg to sculpt them. The work was finished under the great-grandson of Maximilian in 1562-83 by the Flemish sculptor Alexander Colin. Unfortunately only 28 of the statues were cast and the tomb, originally planned by Maximilian to be placed in the Schlosskirche, was eventualy placed by his grandson Emperor Ferdinand I in the Hofkirche. The present drawing was formerly part of the collection formed by the English architects William Talman and his son John, whose interest in drawings was mainly as a record of modern monuments and costumes.