Venetian harbor scene on whale shoulder blade
|
| Venetian harbor scene |
|---|
| 17th or 18th century |
| Oil on whale leg |
| 110 × 108 cm |
| Polling local history museum |
The Venetian Harbor Scene is an oil painting that was placed on the left shoulder blade of a bowhead whale by an unknown hand .
history
The original origin of this curiosity, which is now in the possession of the Pollinger Heimatmuseum, is unknown. At times the painted whale shoulder sheet was in the Augustinian Canons' Monastery in Polling , where it could have come from a private collection. In 2010 it was exhibited as part of the state exhibition "Bavaria - Italy" in Füssen .
The dating of the piece is also controversial. The year 1606 can be read in the cartouche above the actual painting, but the painting has been reworked several times because of the sensitive substrate from which the paint flaked. During the last restoration, the result was that the year should actually be 1706, but this leads to some anachronisms with regard to the image content .
description
The whale shoulder blade as the image carrier is placed vertically so that the narrow side faces up. On the upper part of the tapering bone is a gold cartridge with the year and a symbol that is repeated several times within the picture and strongly reminiscent of the trademark of the Kempten salt merchant and cooper, Hans Funck. Funck lived in the early 17th century, which would coincide with the previous dating of the picture.
The ornate golden cartouche framing merges into a simpler framing of the actual picture, which consists of a gold strip and in turn is framed by golden flower-shaped elements.
In the foreground of the picture on the left is a kind of ship landing stage, on which there is a slightly larger than life statue of Apollo with a bow and arrow, surrounded by several people. Among these is a red-haired man with a sword, ruff, fur collar , black cloak and black cap, who can be seen in profile from the left at the feet of the statue. This costume was modern in Spain in the early 17th century, which also speaks for the earlier assumed date of 1606. At his feet lie several balls of goods on which the symbol from the cartridge is repeated above the picture and the numbers 100 and 1000 can be seen. To the left of the statue, facing this man and his feet on further balls of goods, sits a dark-skinned human figure, further back there are several, partly half-covered figures. One of them wears a white mask.
On the right in the foreground a boat seems to have just docked; on the far right an architectural element has been cut out that resembles a Chinese temple roof; on the far left, objects seem to be covered by white canvas. In the middle distance, behind a black gondola that travels the water here, there is a slightly pink-tinted rectangular stone surface on which other human figures can be seen; apparently another part of the jetty. Behind it, sailing ships of various sizes can be seen on the water; the horizon line under the cloudy sky is at eye level with the Apollo statue, so that one seems to perceive the painted scenes from a certain height.
Although no real known scenery can be recognized, the painting is interpreted as a Venetian scene, because both the gondola and the indicated Pantalone as well as the goods and ships indicating long-distance trade can be assigned to this environment. It may have been commissioned by a merchant who was shown in Spanish costume.
Comparable works of art
As part of the research for his book on whale bone monuments in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, Nicholas B. Redman identified a total of 295 whale bone monuments in these countries. In his opinion, there are particularly many interesting pieces in the German-speaking area. In addition to the common European use of whale bones for fences, archways, furniture, etc., according to Redman, the painted whale shoulder leaves and whale hierozoics occur in particular in Germany .
A well-known painted whale shoulder leaf in Germany is, in addition to the Pollinger specimen, the painted whale shoulder leaf from the Phyletic Collection of the University of Jena . It also bears the year 1646 in the upper part, including a kind of coat of arms with a white stork or a similar animal and on the actual picture surface the depiction of whaling boats in action. On the edge of the whale shoulder blade, the old Dutch inscription “door gods zorggende hangtmen de walfisch ande noortkant” (“God's caring hand is used to catch the whale on the northern edge”) can be read. A painted whale shoulder sheet can also be seen in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg and the University of Erlangen also has a bowhead whale shoulder sheet with images of whaling. A whale shoulder blade in the street shoulder blade in Hamburg served as a pub sign .
However, while the depiction of whaling on part of the prey as a trophy shows a contextual connection between the object and material of the work of art, the artist of the Pollinger picture must have adhered to completely different specifications: A sheet by Jan Saenredam after Hendrick Goltzius from the Strikingly, the year 1596 shows exactly the main group of the Venetian harbor scene: Apollo, clearly modeled on the Apollo of Belvedere , stands on its pedestal, as well as the pantalone wearing a duck and, in a somewhat different shape and arrangement, the figures perhaps disputing with it, those on the whale's shoulder can be recognized. In the Venetian scene, the dark-skinned seated person has adopted the casual posture of the enthroned king. The scene's surroundings are of course different; Saenredam's lion at the top right of the picture could, however, establish a certain connection with Venice, although it is also included here for astronomical reasons.
By the way, Jan Saenredam had visited and sketched a whale stranded on December 19, 1601 in Beverwijk in 1601 or 1602 - albeit a sperm whale , not a bowhead whale . The copper engraving that goes back to this event was not published until 1618. Saenredam died in 1607.
Saenredam's representation of the forest
literature
- Rainhard Riepertinger et al. (Ed.), Bavaria - Italy . House of Bavarian History, Augsburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-937974-27-9 , p. 110 (catalog of the Bavarian State Exhibition of the same name , Sankt Mang Monastery , May 21 to October 10, 2010).
- Klaus Barthelmeß: Nine painted whale shoulder blades and a carved whale humerus (upper arm) . In: Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv , Vol. 17 (1994), pp. 253-272, ISSN 0343-3668 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://museen-bayern.de/inhalt/content.php?type=&objID=838
- ↑ http://www.cetacea.de/artikel/review/2010/redman_whales_bones.php
- ↑ http://gestern.nordbayern.de/artikel.asp?art=1190831&kat=48 ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.ausgepackt.uni-erlangen.de/service/eroeffnung/vortrag_engelhardt.pdf
- ↑ http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Saenredam_Mythological.html
- ↑ http://community.livejournal.com/art_links/1747448.html
- ↑ http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/06/jan-saenredams-whale/
