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Home>Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns>German and Swiss Renaissance

Exhibition Introduction

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Renaissance

    Netherlandish

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Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Nineteenth Century

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More Metalpoint

Metalpoint Drawing through the Centuries

Note: dimensions are given in inches, followed by centimeters in parentheses. Height precedes width.

German and Swiss Renaissance, c. 1500–1520s

Silverpoint activity peaked in Germany in the early sixteenth century, possibly inspired by familiarity with the work of Netherlandish draftsmen. Hans Holbein the Elder (c. 1465 – 1524), whose sensitive portrait studies date from the earliest decades of the century, was one of the most prolific metal- point artists of all time. He sometimes enhanced his silverpoint drawings with chalk or ink.

A striking number of surviving german Renaissance metalpoint drawings are pages from silverpoint sketchbooks, which appealed particularly to travelers. albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528) took a sketchbook with him on his 1520 – 1521 trip to the Netherlands and used it to record his impressions of the people and places he encountered. although Dürer’s sketchbook drawings are made entirely with silverpoint, he also made more elaborate drawings that combine the medium with white heightening.

German and Swiss Renaissance

Hans Holbein the Elder (German, c. 1465 - 1524), Portrait of a Woman, c. 1508, silverpoint with brush and ink, over charoal and leadpoint, heightened with white on prepared paper, 5 11/16 × 4 1/16 (14.4 × 10.3), National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, 1991.182.18.a.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), Head of a Boy, Inclined to Left, c. 1505/1507, silverpoint with touches of pen and ink, heightened with white on prepared paper, 10 11/16 × 8 7/16 (27.2 × 21.4), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, Sloane 5218-41.

German and Swiss Renaissance

Circle of the Wierix Brothers, Two Studies of a Standing Nude Woman in Profile to the Left, Holding a Mirror, c. 1580, silverpoint over blind stylus, strengthened with pen and ink, on prepared paper, On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.979.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), A Dog Resting (recto); Studies of Two Women (verso), 1520, silverpoint over traces of carbon black on pale pink prepared paper (recto); silverpoint on pale pink prepared paper (verso), 5 1/16 × 7 1/16 (12.8 × 18), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1848,1125.3.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), A Table and Jugs with a Sketch of a Horse in Trappings (recto); A Chest and Firedog (verso), 1520/1521, silverpoint on pale pink prepared paper, 4 1/2 × 6 9/16 (11.5 × 16.7), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1921,0714.2.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), Head of a Woman, c. 1505/1507, silverpoint with brush and gray wash (or traces of black chalk?), heightened with white over blind stylus underdrawing on pink prepared paper, 8 9/16 × 7 1/8 (21.8 × 18.1), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.978.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471 - 1528), The Cathedral at Aachen, 1520, silverpoint on pale pink prepared paper, 4 15/16 × 6 7/8 (12.6 × 17.4), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.982.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Hans Holbein the Elder (German, c. 1465 - 1524), Head of a Laughing Man Turned to the Left (recto); Study for a Statuette of Saint Sebastian (verso), c. 1497/1500, silverpoint on white prepared paper, 5 3/16 × 3 3/4 (13.1 × 9.6), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1885,0509.1612.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Hans Holbein the Elder (German, c. 1465 - 1524), Portrait of the Artist’s Brother, Sigmund Holbein, 1512, silverpoint with black and red chalk, heightened with white on white prepared paper, 5 1/16 × 3 3/4 (12.9 × 9.6), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1895,0915.987.
German and Swiss Renaissance

Workshop of Hans Holbein the Elder, attributed to Hans Burgkmair the Elder, Portrait of the Wife of Jörg Fischer, c. 1512/1515, silverpoint with touches of copperpoint on white prepared paper, 5 3/8 × 4 (13.6 × 10.2), On loan from The British Museum, London © The Trustees of the British Museum, London, 1854,0628.113.