Skip to Main Content
Home>Collection>Christ in Limbo

Provenance

Possibly a museum in Breslau (now Wroclaw).[1] (Charles de Burlet, Berlin, 1916.); Dr. Otto Fröhlich, Vienna, 1916;[2] sold to Stefan Auspitz [1869-1945], Vienna, until 1931.[3] (Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., New York, owned jointly with Pinakos, Inc. [Rudolf Heinemann], by 1951);[4] purchased 1951 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA.

[1] Unverified. There are no records of the paintings having been in the Muzeum Narodowe, letter of 11 April 1989 from Mariusz Hermansdorfer to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files, or the Muzeum Archidiecezjalne, letter of 25 June 1989 from Józef Pater to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files.

[2] Memorandum of a communication from Lilly Fröhlich, London, 1956, in NGA curatorial files, which states that Otto Fröhlich acquired the paintings in 1916 from an unspecified museum in Breslau through de Burlet and sold them to Stefan von Auspitz.

[3]Stefan Auspitz was a Viennese banker who was forced by the Austrian financial crisis of 1931 to forfeit most of his collection to creditors of the Austrian government, by whom it was sold to the Dutch collector van Beuningen, who consigned the works for sale over a period of time through the Bachstitz gallery. This painting and its companion, 1952.5.84, do not appear to have been part of those transactions. Instead they were held as security at the firm of Fa. Bäume in Vienna.

[4] Letter of 13 April 1989 from Gerald G. Stiebel to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files. The invoice is dated 23 October 1951.

[5] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/520.

Technical Summary

The original support is composed of two pieces of wood with vertically oriented grain. The panel has been thinned, mounted on hardboard with a mahogany veneer, and cradled. Strips of wood were added to all sides. At the left edge the thin ground rises in a ridge that resembles a barbe but is covered with a continuous layer of paint. The right edge appears to have been cut and scraped. Examination with infrared reflectography reveals underdrawing throughout, similar to that found in the companion Crucifixion. There is an underdrawn grid laid in with a dry brush. The figures are underdrawn in a free, sketchy manner in a liquid medium, but using a dry brush that in places skips over the striated ground layer. The landscape and the architecture are also underdrawn, although, as in The Crucifixion, neither is followed closely in the paint layer. At the bottom of the panel a series of heads, one definitely female, is visible in the x-radiograph but not in infrared reflectography. The heads have been partially painted out, leaving a 0.5 cm band of original paint visible at the extreme bottom. In general the underdrawing is more vigorous and the musculature more pronounced than in the painted stage. Abrasion and pitting as well as areas of inpainting are evident throughout.

Bibliography

1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 84, 86, no. 31, repro. 87, as by German Master.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 315, repro., as by German Master.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 57, as German School.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 49, repro., as German School.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 150, repro., as German School.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 151, no. 166, repro.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 43, fig. 42, as German School, Second Half of XVI Century.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 151, no. 160, color repro., as by German School.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 29, repro., as Anonymous German 16th Century.
1987
Rapp, Jürgen. "Das Ligsalz-Epitaph des Münchner Renaissancemalers Hans Mielich." Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums 1987: 163, 164-165, fig. 4b, 165.
1990
Rapp, Jürgen. "Kreuzigung und Höllenfahrt Christi, zwei Gemälde von Hans Mielich in der National Gallery of Art, Washington." Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (1990): 65-96; color fig. 2; fig. 77.
1993
Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 152-159, color repro. 157.
1995
Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 19.
2004
Eakin, Hugh. "Unfinished Business." Artnews 103, no. 7 (Summer 2004): 160-161, color repro.
2012
Alsteens, Stijn. "Hans Mielich. 'The Circumscision of Christ'." In Dürer and Beyond: Central European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1400-1700, ed. Stijn Alsteens and Freyda Spira. Exh. cat. New York, 2012. New York, 2012: 91, note 5.

Related Content

  • Sort by:
  • Results layout:
Show  results per page
The image compare list is empty.