Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

SZILVIA BODNÁR: On the Draughtsmanship of Caspar Freisinger

ON THE DRAUGHTSMANSHIP OF CASPAR FREISINGER SZILVIA BODNÁR One of the characteristic figures of sixteenth-century South German art, Caspar Freisinger (Ochsenhausen between 1550 and 1560 - 1599 Ingolstadt) active in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, is mainly known for his drawings, most of which he signed and dated and even inscribed with the place of their execution.

1 In addition to his New Testament themes, mythological and allegorical representations by him have also survived. The Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest holds an important work by Freisinger: his earliest dated and signed drawing, which is at the same time his only known self-portrait to date. By giving an overview of the master's partly unpublished drawings in Budapest, by publishing a drawing in Grenoble (hitherto regarded lost), and by newly defining the theme of a work by Freisinger in Wolfegg, the present study aims to make some additions to our knowledge on the Ingolstadt draughtsman and painter. The Budapest Self-portrait, originally intended for an album amicorum, shows the bearded artist seated before two sketches with a melancholic, pensive countenance, his head reclined upon the hand. Ever since it was first mentioned by Baldass in 1916,

2 this drawing, inscribed with the artist's full name and the date 1581, has served as the starting point lor studies on Freisinger (fig. I).

3 The pen in the figure's right hand suggests that he is working on the portrait (self-portrait?) of a bearded man, which lies on the table before him. God the Father in the upper left corner, whose hand raised in blessing is linked through a beam of light to the artist's head, refers to divine inspiration. The image of the drawing was first included in a paper by Hanns Kuhn, a historian from Ingolstadt who also penned the two verses on the drawing. The first one emphasizes that wisdom and art do not come into being by chance, but rather are achievable only by diligence, labour, rest and with the help of God's grace. The other poem stresses the importance oflearning because it makes subsistence possible.

4 Thöne's article on