The Entombment. 1592/93

Joseph Heintz the Elder

1564 Basle – 1609 Prague

Oil on soft wood: 30.5 x 24 cm.

Literature: Jürgen Zimmer, Kulturaustausch zur Zeit Rudolphs II. in: Krakau, Prag und Wien. Funktionen von Metropolen im frühmodernen Staat, ed. Marina Dmitrieva, Karen Lambrecht, Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 2000, p. 296 ff., Fig. 8.

Jürgen Zimmer, War die Rudolfinische Bildkunst “Modern”? in: Studia Rudolphina. Bulletin of the Research Center for Visual Arts and Culture in the Age of Rudolf II., Issue 3, Prague 2003, p. 6ff., Fig. 2.

This is a first sketch, or bozzetto for the Entombment of Christ, which was previously only known through a slightly larger-scale engraved copy (52.4 x 39.7 cm) by Aegidius Sadeler the Younger (1). The painting was discovered in 1999 and has since been published a number of times (2). It is thought to be a design for the engraving. A further two versions, both equally painted by Heintz, though after the production of the engraving (the last version is on the exact scale of the engraving), have come to light following the publication of our version in 2000 (3).

“The colouring of the more detailed painting on wood (as compared to the version on copper), is determined by the reddish-brown hue of the priming, hence its identification as a draft version, an “oil sketch”. What is noteworthy about it is that the kneeling figure seen from behind on the right is distinct from the remaining figures in both its physical aspect and its painterly treatment... The connection between the two versions and Sadeler's engraving is illustrated by the following examples: It is conceivable that Sadeler engraved after an “oil sketch”, since the discrepancies [in the treatment] of the majority of the figures in comparison with the kneeling figure seen from behind on the right, which we observed in the [sketch] have largely been evened out in the print reproduction. On the ground, Sadeler has suggested the outline of a root, which is missing from the “oil sketch”, which in its turn shows a basket on the ground, which Sadeler has also reproduced. In the version painted on copper such minor additions are entirely omitted, and the incongruities in the representation of the figures have been altogether resolved” (4).

In 1591 Heintz was sent to Rome in his role as newly-appointed court painter to Emperor Rudolph II. He stayed in Rome from February 1592 to October 1595 (5). The journey from Prague to Rome also took Heintz to Munich. This is probably where he encountered Aegidius Sadeler the Younger, who had worked in the city since 1590 and whom Heintz was to call to Rome in 1593. Our bozzetto dates to the period immediately after his Roman sojourn and was intended to “... convey to potential clients … the compositional and painterly qualities of Heintz's works” (6).
“... the main figures [in the painting] are strong individualistic characters, but they simultaneously embody types in the sense that they could also reappear in other contexts. Real persons may have served as models for each individual figure, but in the painting they have been imbued with a different level of reality ...” (7).

In its palette our bozzetto still reveals influences of the Italian Renaissance, which Heintz was confronted with for a second time in Italy. He had already been in Italy (in Rome and Venice) from 1584 to 1588 and had particularly during this first trip drawn much after the great Italian masters (8). Both versions painted by Heintz after the Sadeler engraving (9), which can be dated to the first decade of the seventeenth century, already show signs of the darker, mannerist palette, which was to become so characteristic of the pictorial arts at the court of Rudolph II.

Upon Sadeler's arrival in Rome in 1593, his first commission was the reproductive engraving after our bozzetto (10). Heintz returned to Prague in 1595, with the “oil sketch” apparently still amongst his things (11).

Possibly on Heintz's recommendation, or perhaps when he presented the engraving, Sadeler was appointed as court engraver to Rudolph II in 1597. Heintz may have hoped that our bozzetto would entice Emperor Rudolph II to commission a larger version. No such work has yet come to light and it is unlikely to have ever been created. Sadeler's engraving, on the other hand, “... was soon widely circulated, just like so many other inventions of Rudolphine court art” (12).

(1) Holl. 56, ill. vol. XXII.
(2) See Zimmer 2000, p. 296 ff, fig. 8 and Zimmer 2003, p. 6 ff, fig.
(3) Swiss private collection. Oil on copper, 28.5 x 18.5 cm. ( Zimmer 2003, p. 6 ff, fig.) Oil on copper, 50.2 x 39.5 cm. Art market New York, now Princeton University, The Art Museum, Princeton.
(4) Zimmer 2003, p. 8.
(5) Zimmer 1988. p. 38.
(6) Zimmer 2000, p. 296, n. 50.
(7) Zimmer 2003, pp. 7-8.
(8) After Raphael (von Baeyer, London 2003, cat. no. 1, p. 6, ill.). (Zimmer
1988, A 30 - 33), Giambologna (Zimmer 1988. A 21, 22, Sothebys, sale: 6 July 2005, Lot 39), Michelangelo (Zimmer 1988, A 23, 24, 25), Polidoro da Caravaggio (Zimmer 1988, A 28, 29) and Federico Zuccaro (Zimmer 1988, A 35, 36).
(9) Swiss private collection. Oil on copper, 28.5 x 18.5 cm. ( Zimmer 2003, p. 6 ff, ill.). Oil on copper, 50.2 x 39.5 cm. Art market New York, now Princeton University, The Art Museum, Princeton.
(10) Holl. 56, ill. vol. XXII (dated Romae 1593).
(11) Zimmer, 2000, p. 296, n. 50.
(12) Zimmer 2000, p. 296; Zimmer 2003, p. 6ff).

“Following an examination of the panel it has been determined that it is rather probable (a likelihood of 60-70%) that the wood comes from Bohemia. It has also been established that the paint layering and priming ... link this panel painting to contemporary use of copper plates ... “ (see: Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh, Examination of an Entombment by Joseph Heintz, 30 June 1997; ref. 97497.1).

Bought by a private collector.