Vanitas

Seen from the front, a naked woman with long hair fluttering in the wind to the right stands on a skull and looks to the right. She holds a sundial on a sphere in her right hand and grasps the end of the veil falling from her head with her left. A lake with mountainous shores stretches out in the background. On the left rise hills with the high court, on the right is a water fort, connected to the land by a bridge. On either side a tall tree, the one on the left reaching to the upper edge of the picture. In the sky on the right some clouds. A thistle and two tufts of grass grow on the ground. Below, on both sides of the skull, the monogram.

Woodcut, circa 1500/1505, monogrammed MZ in tablet in lower center, with fine old colour.

Good proof, printed on contemporary paper without watermark, complete with marginal line, applied to antique mount, in very good condition.

The work reproduces the engraving made by Master MZ between 1502 and 1503, described by Bartsch and Lehrs. This is the example of th eengraving preserved in the Albertina in Vienna:

https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/?query=search=/record/objectnumbersearch=[DG1928/276]&showtype=record

In cataloging the engraved work of the monogrammer MZ, the two reference books do not describe woodcut work, listing twenty-two engravings with the monogram MZ, including six dated between 1500 and 1503. This work may be a copy by contemporary hand or even his only example of work in woodcut. In either case we feel confident in saying that this is very rare work.

Vanitas, a Latin word for inanity, is an ephemeral concept that refers to the volatility of life on earth. This idea is associated with different objects, mainly from domestic and daily works, which gain a symbolic connotation. The element that mostly characterizes this representation is the skull, i.e. the memento mori which recalls the destiny of mankind. Other classical elements are the hourglass, the watch and the cedar, all of them standing for the passing of time; the cup, the jug or the bowl overturned represent inanity; the crown, the sceptre, the jewels and money represent power and earthly possessions that will be lost by the time we die; finally, the sword reminds that nothing can be done against destiny.

In the absence of appreciable stylistic or technical development, Zasinger’s production can be concentred around 1500. The prints are equally divided between religious and secular objects; most of his works have landscape backgrounds executed with a delicate touch that suggests a precursor of Albrecht Altdorfer and other painters of the Danube school. Works like The Ball and The Tournament (1500; Lehrs 17-18), companion pieces that represent a court festival in Munich, are the principal evidence that the artist was active in that city. This fact has supported the contention that Monogrammist MZ was the Munich goldsmith Matthäus Zasinger (1498-1555), though the burin work more readily suggests the hand of a painter than that of an engraver.

Bibliografia

Cfr. Bartsch vol. 6, pag. 379, 17; Lehrs p. 373 n. 20 e tav. 592.