Online Collections at UoB - Objects
ID number: BIRBI-46.6 Institution: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Artist / Maker: attributed to Amberger, Christoph (c.1500-1562) Title / Object name: Portrait of a Man Object type: Painting
Place made: Germany Culture: German Date made: about 1530/40 Materials: Oil on wood, hardwood oak Measurements: 59.8 x 50.2 cm Provenance: Count Moltke of Copenhagen, eighteenth century, before 1780 and possibly before 1756; Count F. C. Moltke; Winkel and Magnussen Copenhagen, 1/2-6-1931, no.131; later acquired by F. Sabin, London; F. A. Drey; purchased 1946 for £1,500.
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The identity of this elderly man has been lost, though the ring on his right hand suggests that he may have been a humanist scholar. It probably originally formed a pair, with an image of his wife to the right. The man holds a sprig of flowers comprising field gentian, box, rosemary and possibly wild pansy. The significance of this detail and the gesture made by the man’s left hand is not known.
Amberger trained and worked in Augsburg where he specialised in painting portraits of the city’s merchant families.
Inscriptions / Translations: Inscriptions, sale stamps & c.:Inscribed lower right: 130
Notes: Exhibited: 'German Art', Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, 1961 (no. 104).
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