Lot 6: Mary Clopas and her family; and Mary Salome and her family

Hans Süss von Kulmbach (?Kulmbach, Upper Franconia c. 1485-1522 Nuremberg). Mary Clopas and her family; and Mary Salome and her family the second dated '1513' (lower right, on the desk) oil on panel 21½ x 11 in. (54.6 x 28.9 cm.) a pair (2)

Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Gemälde alter Meister aus Berliner Privatbesitz. Kaiser-Friedrich-Museumsverein, July-August 1925, no. 208.
Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker Gallery, Catalogue des Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, October-November 1928, no. 21.
The Hague, The Mauritshuis, on loan since 1960.

Count Cauda, Berlin, 1925.
with Julius Böhler Gallery, Lucern.
with Hugo Perls (1886-1977), Berlin, 1928 catalogue, no. 19.
with Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1928.
Looted by Nazi authorities, July 1940.
Recovered by the Allies, 1945.
in the custody of the Dutch Government.
Restituted in February 2006 to the heir of Jacques Goudstikker.

These beautifully preserved panels are from an as-yet unidentified polyptych by the Nuremberg master, Hans Süss von Kulmbach. Described by Barbara Butts as 'beautiful paintings by the artist and typical in every way' and by Ludwig Meyer as 'definitiv originale Werke ... eines der besten und erfolgreichsten Jahre des Hans von Kulmbach.' Kulmbach is believed to have been a pupil of Jacopo de' Barbari and was one of the foremost of Dürer's contemporary followers who, after the departure of Hans Schäufelein and Hans Baldung from Nuremberg, became - with Dürer's increasing focus on printmaking - the leading painter of altarpieces in that city from the second decade of the sixteenth century until his tragically early death in 1622.

The date of 1513 places these panels contemporaneously with Kulmbach's masterpiece, the Memorial Picture for Lorenz Tucher in St. Sebaldus, Nuremberg. That work was developed from an initial drawing by Dürer in an example of the closeness of the two artists' working lives, indeed Sandrart described Dürer as Kulmbach's 'Lehrmeister', probably meaning a relationship akin to mentor and disciple rather than teacher and pupil, as has in the past been supposed. Certainly, Kulmbach's style owes greatly to the older artist and their respective drawn oeuvres have frequently been confused, although, as noted by Butts, Kulmbach's liquid and luminous handling of paint show his continuing debt to de' Barbari. The quality of Kulmbach's draughtsmanship is evident in these panels from the underdrawing partly visible to the naked eye and more remarkably revealed by infra-red reflectography (see figs 1-4).

Typical of Kulmbach here is the touching simplicity of his depiction of Christ's wider family, represented at ease in their domestic lives. The iconography derives from late medieval theology and is found in the Golden Legend, which stated that Anne, the mother of the Virgin, married three times, having by each marriage a child named Mary: first to Joachim, the father of the Virgin; second to Cleophas (or Clopas), by whom she had Mary the wife of Alpheus and mother of the Apostle James the Less, Saint James the Just (or Barsabus), and the Apostles Simon Zelotes and Judas Thaddaeus; and third to Salome, by whom she had Mary the wife of Zebedee and mother of the Apostles James the Greater and John the Evangelist.

The future Apostles are identifiable amongst the children by their traditional attributes: James the Less with his hatters-bow; Simon Zelotes with his saw; Judas Thaddaeus with his club; James the Greater with his pilgrim's trappings; and John the Evangelist with his chalice. The more obscure James the Just (later known as James, the Brother of the Lord) is represented as an infant, in the absence of any traditional symbol, although traditionally he was the second child of Mary Clopas.