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The Identification of aPrint Study for a Woodcutin Hieronymus Köler’s AlbumAmicorum in the British LibraryEwa Letkiewicz

The British Library holds a unique collection of autograph albums called Album amicorum(book of friends, in German: Stammbuch). These are made up of bound sheets of whitepaper, or sometimes vellum, in which portrait prints and signatures could be collected.Theywere popular from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, especially in Protestant studentcircles in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and Scandinavia. The entries inthese books were commemorative, most frequently marking graduations. The entries werequotations from the works of ancient authors, adages, sayings and wishes, usually in Latinor Greek, and accompanying illustrations, usually small drawings of emblematic or heraldicsubjects, or woodcuts in black and white or colour. Both the owner of the album and theauthors of entries went to great lengths in the preparation of texts and illustrations, with theresult that today they are of art-historical interest and a source of information about theuniversity life of the times.

The practice was described by Philipp Melanchthon, the Reformer and friend of Luther:

These little books certainly have their uses: above all they remind their owners ofpeople, and at the same time bring to mind the wise teaching which has beeninscribed in them, and they serve as a reminder to the younger students to beindustrious in order that the professor may inscribe some kind and commemoratorywords on parting so that they may always prove themselves brave and virtuous duringthe remainder of their lives, inspired, even if only through the names of good men, tofollow their example. At the same time the inscription itself teaches knowledge of thecharacter of the contributor, and quite often significant passages from otherwiseunknown and little-read authors are found in albums. Finally, they recordbiographical details which would otherwise be forgotten.1

In this essay I will show how it has proved possible to identify a drawing in the Louvre asa print study for a print found in one of these albums in the British Library, Egerton MS.1184.

Egerton MS. 1184, one of the unique albums in the British Library, is undoubtedly oneof the oldest and finest. Owned by Hieronymus Köler of Nuremberg (born 1542), thealbum came to the British Museum Library in 1850, among 322 albums obtained from theextremely valuable legacy of the Nuremberg antiquarian and bibliophile Erhard ChristopherBezzel (1727-1807), a passionate collector of writings and mementoes concerning thehistory of his home town.2

1 Quoted by M. A. E. Nickson, Early Autograph Albums in the British Museum (London, 1979), pp. 9-10.2 Nickson, pp. 14-15.

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The history of Hieronymus Köler’s album begins in the year 1561, when his father, a self-made man who had risen to a high position in the city, sent him to Wittenberg to study, andfrom there, in 1563 to the University of Tübingen.3 In the album, which he himselfarranged, he collected three hundred entries by his friends and teachers and people of highrank he had contacted in Nuremberg, Wittenberg,Tübingen,Augsburg, Speyer andVienna.

The introduction to the album is taken from a Latin poem placed in the Stammbuchowned by Heinrich Moller of Hesse (f. 3rv). Hieronymus Köler copied the poem, adding atthe end the Köler family coat of arms (f. 3v), with a Latin motto and an illustration showingChrist and his disciples in a boat during the storm on the sea of Galilee (f. 4r).4 At the endof the album there is an engraved portrait of Philipp Melanchthon by Albrecht Dürer(f. 210r). Melanchthon described and admired Köler’s album. As the opening entry Kölerplaced the portrait of the Protestants’ spiritual leader, Martin Luther (f. 1v).

One of the first entries in Köler’s book is a dedication with the autograph of the youngMikołaj [Nicholas] Krzysztof Radziwiłł (known as Sierotka, ‘The Orphan’) (1549-1616).5

Later Grand Marshal of Lithuania,Voivode of theVilinus voivodship, a memorist, the firstentailer of Niasvizh (in Polish: Nieswiez), he was the oldest son of Mikołaj the Black andElzbieta née Szydłowiecka (figs 1 and 2).6

3 Nickson, p. 14.4 Quoted in full by Nickson, p. 155 The graphic and sculpted portraits of Radziwiłł the Orphan are presented and discussed by T. Bernatowicz,Miles Christianus et Peregrinus. Fundacje Mikołaja Radziwiłła “Sierotki” w Ordynacji Nieswieskiej (Warsaw,1998). His portraits on medals have also been preserved. These are mentioned by F. Bentkowski, Spismedalów polskich lub z dziejami krainy polskiej stycznymi (Warsaw, 1835), p. 9, items 28, 29, 30. Medals of ‘theOrphan’ as a child, a young man and an adult are kept in the the Czapski Department at the NationalMuseum in Kraków and discussed by T. Bernatowicz, Monumenta Variis Radivillorum. Wyposazenie zamkunieswieskiego w swietle zródeł archiwalnych, cz. i, XVI-XVII wieku (Poznan, 1998), p. 28, plates 30-34. Themetal imprints of three medals of Radziwiłł can be found in the iconographic collection in the NationalMuseum in Warsaw, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. xxx/2, 1987, p. 350.

6 E. Kotłubaj, Galeria nieswiezska portretów Radziwiłłowskich (Wilno, 1857), pp. 305-19; Polski SłownikBiograficzny, p. 349. On the distaff side he was the only male heir of the Szydłowiecki family which wasextinguished with the death of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. Radziwiłł the Orphan inherited thecounty of Szydłowiec (1557) and the title Count of Szydłowiec from his grandfather. From his father heinherited the title Duke of Ołyka and Nieswiez. Mikołaj the Black was given the title Prince of the HolyRoman Empire of the German Nation by Emperor CharlesV in 1547, which raised Radziwiłł to the ranks ofthe European aristocracy. At the same time, by inheritance from Jerzy Illicz, a maternal cousin, he becameCount of Mir, Czarnawczyce and Biała: Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus, p. 9.

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Fig. 1. Portrait of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł. Egerton MS. 1184, f. 5v

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Fig. 2. Inscription by Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł. Egerton MS. 1184, f. 6r

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Köler received this entry from the Prince on 15 January 1565.They had met inTübingen,where they were studying at the time. The portrait is a coloured woodcut, half-length, inthree-quarters, facing right. The elements of his attire are shown in detail, as well as his hat,a chain with a medallion around his neck and a book in his hand. In the lower left corner arethe initials IZ, which Max Rosenheim interpreted in 1910 as the name of the engraver JacobZüberlein of Tübingen (1556-1607).7 Rosenheim’s findings were accepted in Polishliterature on the subject.8 Margaret A. E. Nickson also discusses the coloured portrait ofRadziwiłł in her account of Köler’s album amicorum, although no mention is made of theartist or engraver responsible.9

In the Louvre there is a drawing that corresponds to the engraved portrait of Radziwiłł,but in reverse (fig. 3).10

It is a portrait of a currently unidentified young man, on cardboard, in pencil, pen, andblack ink. The signature DK appears in the lower right hand corner of the portrait and thedrawing is identified as the work of David Kandel (1520-1592), a wood engraver fromStrasbourg who was active from 1538. Again the drawing is a three-quarter portrait of ayoung man, shown from the waist upwards. He is holding a small book in his hands, whichare resting on a writing desk (or window sill).11 What is striking about the drawing is thatsome particulars have been executed in more detail than others, with the hat and facecarefully drawn. The artist has meticulously captured the detail of the decorative cordadorning the hat. Apart from depicting the sitter’s distinctive features, the artist has alsorendered his character. The young man’s stiff pose, his cold countenance and pouting lowerlip all serve to give the impression that he is proud and distant. The remaining details havebeen drawn only very sketchily and only a few particulars have been included, such as theembroidery on the sleeve, the decorative links of the chain and the jewel hanging around theyoung man’s neck (which has been copied and magnified in the upper left corner of thedrawing). All these qualities give the impression that this is a sketch for a portrait, or printstudy, rather than a finished product.

These assumptions would seem reasonable when comparing the portrait drawing of theanonymous young man in the Louvre with another example of the finished woodcut portraitof the young Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, to be found in a volume of Greek poems byMartinus Crusius, Martini Crusii Poematum graecorum libri duo, addita eregione partim ipsiusconversione partim Leonardi Engelhardi, partim Erhardi cellii, carmine latino, published in Basleby Oporinus in 1566 (fig. 4).12

Fig. 3. Portrait of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł. Musée du Louvre, Département desArts graphiques, size14, 5 cm x 10 cm, catalogue no. INV 18707. Inventaire du Département des Arts graphiques,http:// arts-graphiques.louvre.fr/fo/visite?srv=mfc&idFicheOeuvre=108689

7 M. Rosenheim, ‘The Album Amicorum’, Archaeologia: or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, lxii,(1910), p. 251.

8 Marian Chachaj, Zagraniczna edukacja Radziwiłłów od poczatku XVI do połowy XVII wieku (Lublin, 1995),p. 22; Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus, p. 134.

9 Nickson, Early Autograph Albums, p. 15, plate 4 (black and white reproduction of the colour portrait).10 Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, size 14.5 cm x 10 cm, catalogue no. INV 18707.11 The Louvre portrait was published byYvonne Hackenbroch, Renaissance Jewellery (München, 1979), p. 102,

plate 261.12 Chachaj, p. 22.The portrait is reproduced by K. Piekarski,Katalog Biblioteki Kórnickiej, vol. i, Polonica XVI-

go wieku ([Kraków], 1929), p. 57.

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Fig. 4. Portrait of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł. Marcin Crusius, Poemata graecorum ... addita conversioneL. Engelhardi et E. Celli ... (Basle, 1566).

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13 Chachaj, p. 22. The black and white version of the colour portrait can be found in H. Barycz, Jan Łasicki.Studium z dziejów polskiej kultury naukowej XVI wieku (Wrocław etc., 1973), engraving 11.

14 M. Radziwiłł the Black to his son ‘the Orphan’, Brzesc 15 IX 1564, Poznan, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im.E. Raczynskiego, 78, k. 41, r.-v., cited after M. Chachaj, p. 22.

15 M. Chachaj, p. 22; J. Jasnowski, Mikołaj Radziwiłł Czarny (1515-1565). Kanclerz i marszałek ziemskiWielkiego Ksiestwa Litewskiego, wojewoda wilenski (Warsaw, 1939), pp. 381-4; Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus,p. 9. Radziwiłł the Orphan was to be his successor, the most important person in Lithuania. He made a careerthanks to his father’s position as confidant to King Zygmunt August.

16 Jasnowski, p. 383. Mikołaj the Black, the Prince’s father, began collecting portraits, first in Nieswiez, later inVilnius: Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus, p. 134.

17 Jasnowski, pp. 382-3.

This woodcut is well known.13 The coloured version of Radziwiłł’s portrait in Eg. 1184differs from the black and white woodcut in Crusius only in that it has a differentinscription. In the black and white version it reads: IMAGO ILLUSTRISS. PRIN-cipis &Domini, D. NICOLAI CHRISTO-PHORI Radziuuili, Ducis Olicae & Nies-uuisij, Comitis inSchidlo-uuietz. The coloured version reads in manuscript: VIVA IMAGOILLUSTRISSIMI PRIN-CIPIS& DOMINI, DOMINI NICOLAI CHRISTO-PHORIRADZICVVIL, DVCIS OLICAE ET NIESVVISI &c.

One fundamental difference between the woodcuts and the drawing is the arrangementof the hands. In the Louvre drawing, the young man is holding a book with both hands,however in the woodcut portraits the ornamentation on the cover of the book is visible andit is held in his right hand only, while his left hand rests lightly on the desk or sill. Despitethese minor, formal differences, there is no doubt that the portrait in the Louvre is adepiction of the young Prince Radziwiłł the Orphan, and that it was a preliminary sketch forthe woodcut portrait.

Another important difference between the woodcuts and the drawing is the signature. Aspreviously mentioned, the monogram on the Louvre drawing is composed of the overlappedletters D and K, which are identified with David Kandel. However, in the bottom leftcorner of the woodcuts the monogram IZ (or ZI) appears.

The engraved portrait is, in all probability, the one referred to in correspondence, housedin Poland, between Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black and his son Mikołaj Krzysztof.14 He wroteletters to his son, whom he sent in 1563 to study at Strasbourg, accompanied by a largeretinue. At that time the University of Strasbourg was one of the most important Protestantacademic centres, and students from the whole of Europe flocked there. The young magnatebegan his studies under the direction of Jan Sturm, a famous humanist and pedagogue whowas presented with a letter of recommendation from the young Radziwiłł’s father. He spentmore than a year there (from August 1563 to November 1564) and made his first contactswith academics and some of the most notable local figures. Because of the plague he left thecity for Tübingen. The young Prince’s studies abroad were to prepare him for a career inpolitics and at court.15 In 1564, at his father’s request, the young Radziwiłł commissioned aportrait of himself, which was intended for the Castle atVilnius.16 His father was not happywith the portrait and — judging by his reaction — the comments he made related to theportrait known from the woodcut in Crusius’s Poemata and in Köler’s album amicorum. Onseeing his son depicted in an elegant and fashionable hat, wearing a gold chain around hisneck, Mikołaj the Black criticized the portrait as being in accordance with the bourgeoistastes of Baltazar Lewaldt-Jezierski, the steward who accompanied his son, and who toldhim to commission ‘a new gold chain with the king’s face’. He probably had in mind amedallion which had been sent earlier with a likeness of the king ‘under the shield of theLithuanian coat of arms beneath the Lithuanian helm, even though it includes the Eagleplaced next to the White Knight (Pogon)’.17n

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18 T. Pignati, Historia rysunku. Od Altamiry do Picassa (Warsaw, 2006), pp. 74-144.19 Often confused with another artist from Strasbourg, David Kannel, active in the 1530s (1537), Hollstein’sGerman Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts (1400-1700), vol. 15 B, Baltasar Jenichen to David Kandel, ed.Tilman Falk (Blaricum, 1986), p. 245.

20 J. E. Gérock, ’Un Artiste strasbourgeois du XVIe siécle David Kandel’, Archives Alsaciennes d’Histoire del’Art, ii (1923), pp. 84, 86.

21 Hollstein’s German Engravings, p. 217. In the older literature David Kandel’s date of birth is given as 1538,and 1587 as his date of death: see Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart,vol. xix (Leipzig, 1926), p. 514.

22 Gérock, p. 88.23 Ibid., pp. 86-90.

Let us, however, take a closer look at the portrait of the prince and the surmised artists.Despite the sketchiness of the portrait, David Kandel’s light and delicate drawing, the

subtlety and precision of the lines, the realism, and accurate psychological characterization,make it close to being one of the best renditions of this type of art. Portraits executed inpencil, ink, sanguine, and in particular in coloured chalk, belonged to a type popularized inartistic circles in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and France in the sixteenth century.18

The coloured pencil technique was highly valued in portraiture because it could be used tocreate a realistic effect

Very little is known about David Kandel’s life although his work ranks highly among theachievements of engravers who were active in the mid-sixteenth century.19 He was born in1520, the son of a citizen of Strasbourg, and it is possible that he too was born in Strasbourg.He married in 155420 and in 1587 he is documented as the owner of a house. He died in1592.21 He is the author of a number of portraits, a few biblical scenes, studies of animals(fig. 5) — mainly in the Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster,22 — topographical plans andmany priceless maps. His crowning achievement, however, was the set of botanicalwoodcuts which he provided in 1546 to illustrate Hieronymus Bock’s Kreuter buch,containing 550 woodcuts of herbs, plants and trees (fig. 6).23 These exquisite, meticulouslyexecuted woodcuts became the standard reference work for botanical artists in subsequentcenturies.

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Fig. 5. David Kandel, Rhinoceros. Sebastian Münster, Cosmographia (Basle, 1578), p. mcccl. 569.h.25

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Fig. 6. David Kandel, Pear tree. Hieronymus Bock, Kreuter buch (Strasbourg, 1546), Book III, f. xlir. 440.m.10.

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His works are often associated with the monogram DK, enclosed within two miniaturestars — one on either side of the monogram (fig. 5). His works are often signed with thesingle letter D.

The artist whom Max Rosenheim surmised may have been the author of the portrait ofthe young Prince Radziwiłł was Jacob Züberlein (1556-1607).24 Züberlein was born inHeidelberg in 1556,25 so would have been barely eight years old in 1564 when the portrait ofRadziwiłł was drawn. Although in later years he became famous as an artist and engraverand worked, among others, for Prince Louis von Württemberg,26 it is highly unlikely that hecould have been the author of such a realistically drawn portrait at such a young age.

We can now assume that the engraver who executed the woodcut should be sought in thecircle of David Kandel, the author of the preliminary sketch for the portrait of MikołajKrzysztof Radziwiłł. In those times, master wood engravers employed pupils to prepare theblocks (German: Formschneider) in their workshop, whose task it was to carve out on blocksof wood the drawings produced by the artists. From what we know today about DavidKandel’s work, it transpires that his workshop employed several engravers, who placed theirown monograms next to the master’s monogram (DK) on any work that they werecommissioned to do.27 These include the following: FO, the author of, among others, TheSacrifice of Abraham, Lot and His Daughters, and the Portrait of Jacob Sturm, all of which wereexecuted after drawings by Kandel;28 IC [Jacob Clauser], the author of several prints for theGenealogical Tree of Frederick Prince of the Palatine, which was designed by Kandel.29 Othersalso worked on this particular print, including ZSP [Zacharias Speckle]30, HS31 and HVBV.32

Another unknown engraver, bearing the monogram CS, also carved blocks according todrawings executed by Kandel; these included the panoramas of Lüneburg and Lubeck, anda map of Constantinople.33 The monogramist IZ (or ZI) who cut the portrait of MikołajRadziwiłł the Orphan, after a drawing by Kandel, can now also be added to this list.

The discovery in the Louvre of a print study for the British Library portrait of MikołajKrzysztof Radziwiłł, the rejection of Jacob Züberlein as its author, and its identification withthe circle of artists and cutters working for David Kandel, broaden our knowledge about thelegacy of this eminent artist from Strasbourg and his workshop.

24 Rosenheim, p. 251.25 Allgemeines Lexikon, vol. lxiii, p. 580.26 Ibid., pp. 580-1.27 Hollstein’s German Engravings, pp. 217-45.28 Ibid., pp. 218, 219, 226.29 Ibid., p. 220.30 Ibid.31 Ibid.32 Ibid.33 Ibid, pp. 233, 238, 239, 241.