Hans Springinklee
Madonna and Child with a clove
Although considered sometimes as a mere copy of Dürer's Madonna of the Carnation (1516) from Munich, it is one of the most intriguing paintings in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, attributed to Hans Springinklee (born between 1490 and 1495 – c. 1540). Asymmetrical and less idealized than the assumed model, the persons depicted are also less divine and more human, more close in this way to the ideas of Northern Renaissance with its Naturalism, that realistically illustrated the natural world. The oval head of the Virgin was set on a grotesque, elongated and floppy neck. It is therefore an antithesis of High Renaissance classical proportions and rational perspective.
The painting is a mirror reflection of the Munich version, hence an engraving is sometimes considered as a direct source of the composition.
The Virgin is portrayed frontally with the Child in her arms, reduced space shows not more than heads and hands. The Virgin offers the Child a carnation clove, symbolizing the blood of the Passion, also the mystical marriage between mother and child, Christ and his Church. Little Jesus holds an apple in his hands symbolizing the Original Sin. Just as in Munich version, the artist repeats the reflection of a window in the eyes of the Virgin, however the reflection is not present in the Child's eyes as in the Dürer's painting. For Dürer eyes were the window to the psyche and he used this technique to add vitality to his sitters.
The delicate face of Mary is framed by blonde hair painted with bright golden hues and a halo composed of bright dashes. Her look is sweet and reassuring, addressed directly to the devotee. Large head of the Child denotes a study from life of the subject. Strikingly similar face of the Child we can find in a painting preserved in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and attributed by Lisa Oehler to Hans Springinklee. This painting is also considered as a copy of a lost original by Dürer from 1518.
The history of the painting before 1942, when it was evacuated from the Silesian Museum of Decorative Arts and Antiquities, is unknown. It was transferred to the National Museum from the Nazi German Repository in Kamenz (Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Polish Regained Territories) in 1946.
The painting is a mirror reflection of the Munich version, hence an engraving is sometimes considered as a direct source of the composition.
The Virgin is portrayed frontally with the Child in her arms, reduced space shows not more than heads and hands. The Virgin offers the Child a carnation clove, symbolizing the blood of the Passion, also the mystical marriage between mother and child, Christ and his Church. Little Jesus holds an apple in his hands symbolizing the Original Sin. Just as in Munich version, the artist repeats the reflection of a window in the eyes of the Virgin, however the reflection is not present in the Child's eyes as in the Dürer's painting. For Dürer eyes were the window to the psyche and he used this technique to add vitality to his sitters.
The delicate face of Mary is framed by blonde hair painted with bright golden hues and a halo composed of bright dashes. Her look is sweet and reassuring, addressed directly to the devotee. Large head of the Child denotes a study from life of the subject. Strikingly similar face of the Child we can find in a painting preserved in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and attributed by Lisa Oehler to Hans Springinklee. This painting is also considered as a copy of a lost original by Dürer from 1518.
The history of the painting before 1942, when it was evacuated from the Silesian Museum of Decorative Arts and Antiquities, is unknown. It was transferred to the National Museum from the Nazi German Repository in Kamenz (Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Polish Regained Territories) in 1946.
oil on lime-wood, second quarter of 16th century, 49 × 34.5 cm (19.3 × 13.6 in), inventory number M.Ob.1773, currently not on permanent display, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (MNW)
© Marcin Latka
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