12 - Nuremberg Chronicle - The French City Of Toulouse - 1493

Nuremberg Chronicle - The French City Of Toulouse - 1493 Description: A large sheet with two woodcuts from the first edition of Hartmann Schedel, "Liber Cronicarum", from 12 July 1493. On front: six woodcuts of Greek scientists, philosophers and painters. On verso the view of the City of Toulouse (Tolosa in Latin). ---- Woodcuts from the richest illustrated Incunabula, the famous: "Nuremberg Chronicle". The wood blocks were designed by Michael Wolgemut and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their assistants, including the young Albrecht Dürer, who was apprenticed to Wolgemut at the time. Wohlgemut was Albrecht Durer's tutor between 1486-90. The printing was carried out under the supervision of the great scholar-printer Anton Koberger, who was Durer's godfather. Dimensions: 20,00 x 22,50 each woodcut woodcut Condition: Good impression of text and woodcut on a large folio sheet of laid paper from the period. Outer margins a bit shop-soiled. For a piece more than 500 years old in very good condition. Literature: Liber Chronicarum, here a first edition, in Latin, printed by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg on 12 July 1493 ---- Michel Wolgemut, Painter, designer of woodcuts. At an early stage of his career he is thought to have assisted Hans Pleydenwurff (c. 1420-72) in Nuremberg. In 1473 he married Hans Pleydenwurff's widow, thereby inheriting this artist's workshop. Wolgemut taught Albrecht Dürer from 1486 to 1489. That Dürer held his master in high esteem is implied in a letter he wrote in 1506 from Venice to his friend Willibald Pirckheimer in Nuremberg, in which he recommends Wolgemut as a teacher for his younger brother Hans Dürer. Dürer also painted a portrait of Wolgemut in 1519. Wolgemut's stepson, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (c. 1458-94), worked with him and by 1491 had become his partner. The Wolgemut workshop was the most active in Nuremberg during this period. Documented altarpieces for several churches. Together with Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, Wolgemut was responsible for the production of the woodblocks for Hartmann Schedel's 'Weltchronik' published in 1493 by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg (Text from Bartrum 1995). Bibliography: Rowlands 1993; Neudörfer, Nachrichten, pp. 128-30; Thieme-Becker, xxxvi, 1947, pp. 175ff.; xxxvii, 1950, p. 306 (for further literature); Gerd Betz, Der Nürnberger Maler Wolgemut und seine Werkstatt (typescript dissertation), Freiburg, 1955; Stange, ix, 1958, pp. 51-60; Bellm, Skizzenbuch; Bellm, Schatzbehalter, Austin, Nuremberg, pp. 92ff; Bartrum, BM 1995.A basic bibliography on Wolgemut is provided by Matthias Mende, Dürer-Bibliographie, Wiesbaden, 1971, nos 5808-30. Early literature on the prints is given in Campbell Dodgson, I, p. 241. A more recent discussion of Wolgemut, as well as Pleydenwurff, is in Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Nuremberg: A Renaissance City, 1500-1618, exh. cat., Austin, University of Texas, 1983, pp. 92ff. Medium: Woodcuts Date: 1493