Johann König (1586-1642)

VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT BAPTIST

 

 

Oil on copper, 28.2 x 22 cm
Transferred from Chester Free Public Library 1920.  Re-numbered 1967.114

Introduction

The Grosvenor Museum is fortunate to possess a beautiful picture of the Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist, painted in oil on copper.¹  It was transferred from the Chester Free Public Library to the museum in 1920.²   It had most probably been among the 51 oil paintings belonging to Miss Anne Topham of 11 Castle Street, Chester, who died 19 September 1878.  She left her paintings (valued at £200) to Charles Brown for donation to a suitable institution, and in February 1879 he presented them to the library.  (The Grosvenor Museum, which opened in 1886, did not then exist.)  The painting was re-accessioned in 1967.³   There are no known versions, drawings, engravings or reproductions.

Attribution

When the painting was accessioned in 1920 it was attributed to the School of Hans Rottenhammer (1564-1625), and when re-accessioned in 1967 it was listed as Unknown Artist.   David Scrase suggested that the painting is not by Rottenhammer, but is perhaps by Jean Symons Pynas (1583/4-1631) or Jacob Symonsz Pynas (c.1585 - after 1648) or by someone around Johann König (1586-1642).⁴   The foliage in the Chester painting appears to be very similar to that in Latona changing the Lycian Peasants into Frogs by König(?) (London, Courtauld Institute Gallery).   Keith Andrews suggested that the landscape in the Chester painting certainly looks very close to König, and that the figures may well be by his hand too.⁵  

According to Malcolm Waddingham, the painting is by Johann König.⁶   He has pointed out revealing comparisons in the following works:   for the child Jesus and infant St John, the putti in the four panels depicting the Seasons by König (Vienna, Künsthistorisches Museum); the Toilet of Bathsheba (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum) contains similar female heads; and the signed and dated 1616 series of classical and Christian allegories (Munich, Schloss Nymphenburg) has similar stylistic qualities and helps to provide a date for the Chester painting.

Johann (or Hans) König, a German painter and miniaturist, was born in 1586 and died in 1642.   He was working at Augsburg about 1600, and painted for the Town Hall of that city a Last Judgment and the Story of Ananias and Sapphira.   He was in Rome from 1610-16, and he also lived at Nuremberg.   There is at the University of Upsala an agate on which he painted on one side the Passage of the Red Sea and on the other the Last Judgment.   In addition to the paintings mentioned above and in Appendix II, there is a Christ and the Samaritan in Berlin.⁷

Iconography

The image of the Virgin and Child was encouraged as the representation of official doctrine following the condemnation of the Nestorian heresy (which denied the Virgin Mary the title 'Mother of God') by the Council of Ephesus in 431.   Effigies of the Virgin and Child enthroned first became widely diffused in the 7th century, and were drawn from Byzantine models.  The Renaissance saw the replacement of the hieratic type of the Virgin and Child by others less formal, among them the Madonna of Humility.   The essential feature of this type, which appeared first in northern Italian painting in the 14th century, is that the Virgin is seated on the ground, rather than enthroned.⁸   The Chester painting thus belongs to the type of the Madonna of Humility.

The theme of the Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist for which there is no Biblical basis first occurs in the art of the Italian Renaissance, and was very common in 16th century Italian painting.   Pseudo-Bonaventure (Giovanni de Caulibus) relates that the Holy Family on their return from Egypt stayed with Elizabeth, the cousin of the Virgin, and with her son the little St John, and tells how the latter showed respect to the Christ child, even though both were of tender years.   A variant is the legend related by St Bonaventura, that on the Virgin and Joseph leaving Egypt with the Child, they met the young Baptist on the skirts of the wilderness, near a gushing spring, and John acknowledged Christ as Lord.⁹   These are the likely sources for the subject of the Chester painting.

The Virgin wears her traditional red tunic with long sleeves, and over this is a blue robe, the colour symbolic of heaven and a reminder of the Virgin's role as Queen of Heaven.   She wears a transparent veil:   the fathers of the early Church, particularly Tertullian, attached great importance to the decent veil worn by Christian maidens, and in all the early pictures the Virgin is veiled.¹⁰   Her feet are unshod.¹¹   The Virgin is the only figure in the Chester painting to be depicted with a halo, in the form of a simple ring shown in perspective.¹²  

The Child is always, in the Greek and early pictures, clothed in a little tunic, generally white.   In the 15th century he first appears partly, and then wholly, undraped.   The diaphanous white fabric upon which he sits in the Chester painting is surely a vestige of this earlier white clothing.   White signifies innocence, purity and holiness.¹³   The white cloth up which the naked Christ Child is placed may prefigure the clean linen sheet with which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the naked body of the crucified Christ.¹⁴

John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth, a 'kinswoman' (Luke 1:36) of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.   The Baptist was six months older than Christ (Luke 1:37), and in depictions of the infant Baptist with the infant Christ, John is shown as somewhat the older of the two.¹⁵   According to tradition, John retired to the desert while still a child.¹⁶   The depiction of the infant Baptist traditionally follows the Biblical description of the adult Baptist 'John's clothing was a rough coat of camel's hair, with a leather belt round his waist'  (Matthew 3:4) and he is shown thus in the Chester painting.¹⁷ The adult Baptist is traditionally depicted as standing with his limbs and chest exposed, his hand uplifted, and his mouth half open, and these details also appear in the Chester painting.   His almost invariable attribute is the reed cross with a long slender stem.¹⁸ The cross is the symbol of faith and, in the hand of John, symbolises his mission as Baptist and prophet to preach and convert.   He is considered as the last of the prophets of the Old, and the first of the saints of the New Testament, thus forming the connecting link between the two dispensations.¹⁹

On the right of the Chester painting, behind the Virgin, are the lower parts of two unfluted classical columns side by side; the one farthest to the right is on a short pedestal, whilst the base of the other one is hidden.²⁰   A single column may refer to the Nativity of Christ since, according to the Mediationes of Pseudo-Bonaventura (Giovanni de Caulibus), the Virgin supported herself on a column prior to giving birth.²¹   A single column may also refer to the Flagellation of Christ (mentioned very briefly by all the Evangelists),²² since it was customary to depict Christ bound to a column.²³   The column of the Flagellation is mentioned, in direct connection with the Nativity, in the Revelationes of St Bridget of Sweden, which describe how the Virgin foresaw the Passion as soon as she had given birth to Jesus.   The two columns side by side in the Chester painting may thus refer to both the infancy and the Passion of Christ.²⁴

Other details in the Chester painting are also worthy of note.   The large tree beside the columns and the majority of the trees behind the figures are very probably sycamores, a tree commonly found in central and southern Europe at the time this picture was painted.²⁵  The sycamore may refer to the entry of Christ into Jerusalem,²⁶ which in art forms the first scene of the cycle of the Passion, since in the background of traditional depictions are two trees, in one of which is Zacchaeus, who 'climbed a sycamore tree in order to see him' (Luke 19:4).²⁷   The two tall slender trees rising above the others behind the figures are almost certainly Italian cypresses:   the cypress pointing to heaven is an emblem of the Virgin.   The tree with drooping branches immediately to the left of the Baptist's head may well be a silver birch:   in some depictions of the Flagellation of Christ the soldiers use birches.²⁸   The river on the left of the painting undoubtedly refers to the Jordan in which John baptised (Matthew 3:6).   The bare brown soil beneath his feet and the stones in the foreground (which contrast with the rest of the rich green landscape) may refer to the desert into which the Baptist had withdrawn.   The buildings in the distant landscape on the left of the painting include a number of towers:   the tower is an attribute of the Virgin, symbolising her chastity.²⁹

The white strip held by the Child and the Baptist in the Chester painting may represent the scroll with the words 'Ecce Agnus Dei' ('Behold the Lamb of God') frequently seen in depictions of the Baptist, both infant and adult.   This inscription is derived from the passage in John 1:29 the Baptist 'saw Jesus coming towards him. 'Look,' he said 'there is the Lamb of God:   it is he who takes away the sin of the world'.'   The words, 'The Lamb of God', proclaimed by the Baptist, foreshadow the future sacrificial death of Christ.³⁰   The Baptist thereby fulfils his father's prophecy (Luke 1:76), 'my child, you shall be called the Prophet of the Highest'.   In the Chester painting, the Baptist holds the scroll in his right hand and offers it to the Christ Child, who accepts and holds it firmly with both hands.   The Baptist looks at Christ, and Christ looks at the scroll.   Thus the central activity of the Chester painting may be understood as the acceptance by the Christ Child of his future sacrificial death (by which he 'takes away the sin of the world'):   and the instrument of that death the cross is carried in the Baptist's other hand.

The Virgin looks at the Baptist (who looks at Christ, who looks at the scroll), and places her right hand upon his shoulder.   This gesture may be understood as drawing the Baptist with his message toward her Son.³¹   The Virgin points to the Christ Child with her left hand, and this gesture may be derived from one of the three main types of the Virgin and Child enthroned in early Italian painting the Virgin pointing to the Child.³²   The Virgin points to the side of Christ's body (it is not clear whether she touches his flesh), and this may refer to the wound in Christ's side at the Crucifixion (John 19:34).³³

The theme of the Chester painting may thus be understood as the acceptance by the Christ Child of his future sacrificial death.³⁴   The Passion of Christ may be alluded to by the white cloth upon which he sits, the reed cross in the Baptist's hand, the columns and trees behind him, the scroll which he and the Baptist hold, and the pointing of the Virgin to the side of his body.

Frame

The frame was designed by Peter Boughton, Keeper of Art and Architecture at the Grosvenor Museum, and was made by John Davies Framing Ltd. in 1987.  The design is based on a Doric tabernacle altarpiece in Sebastiano Serlio's L'Architettura Book IV, page 30.  First published in Venice in 1537, this had a profound influence in Northern Europe.  Serlio's treatise would have been known by the furniture-makers of Augsburg, who specialised in elaborate cabinets, often using ebony and tortoiseshell.  We may speculate that, had an Augsburg cabinet-maker produced a frame for this painting, he might have made something like this.

The frame is of ebony with red tortoiseshell panels. These colours relate to the iconography of the picture, whose theme is the acceptance by the Christ Child of his future sacrificial death, since black signifies death and red symbolises the blood of the passion.   The two columns in the painting refer to the Infancy and the Passion of Christ, and are echoed in the Roman Doric half-columns on Tuscan pedestals which flank the picture opening.   The mouldings of the column bases on the frame precisely reproduce the details and size of the one in the painting, and the simplicity of the Doric order is particularly suitable to the solemnity of the theme. The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist was a cabinet picture, intended to be admired primarily for its artistic excellence, but it was probably also regarded as a specifically religious image in early 17th century Augsburg, and the frame functions equally well for both these approaches.

Appendix I:  Conservation Report

The painting of the Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist underwent conservation during 1965-7 at the North Western Museum and Art Gallery Service, Manchester, and again during 1978-84 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.   James M. France, Picture Restorer at the Walker Art Gallery, kindly supplied the following condition and treatment report.

The picture is painted in oil on copper and before treatment was coated in a very substantial layer of varnish.   The varnish layer was fairly recently applied and, although clear, featured deep impressions of fold and creases from the Melanex wrapping.   Some attempt had been made to reduce these surface irregularities by partly removing the varnish layer with white spirit.   Unfortunately, the retouching medium consisted of the same white spirit soluble resin as the varnish, and because of this, the attempt to partly remove the varnish layer resulted in the disturbance of the many, extensive retouchings.  As a result of this it was decided that the only sensible course to follow involved the complete removal of the varnish and retouchings prior to retouching and revarnishing.

Extensive damages and losses were revealed after the remaining varnish and retouchings were removed with white spirit.  The most serious losses are in the area of the Virgin's robes, the darks of the Infant Baptist and the top left corner of the sky.   The losses to the Virgin's robes were partly consistent with damage caused by scraping. Whether this scraping was simply the result of a crude attempt to smooth a surface already pitted with several losses, or to scrape away blistering paint, or to retrieve what might have been thought to be the valuable blue pigment lapis lazuli, must remain conjective.   Since some discreet and isolated losses are featured elsewhere in the picture, the question remains whether the extensive losses to the Virgin's robes were caused by defective technique, poor preparation of the copper panel, a reaction to particular pigments or a form of vandalism.   It should be noted that the copper panel was silvered or tinned prior to painting, and black encrustations on the exposed tinned or silvered surface in areas of paint loss suggests that some oxidation has taken place.   This oxidation may account for some of the paint loss but it is just as likely that oxidation took place after paint loss occurred.

After cleaning a decision was taken to reconstruct the missing areas of original paint.  No attempt was made, however, to reconstruct the pattern of fine gold lines which originally delineated areas of drapery and was used to simulate fine embroidered cloth.   Virtually all of this gold detailing is lost, and too little remains to offer a reasonable guide for the reconstruction of the original design.   Losses, other than to the gold detailing, were filled and retouched using Ketone resin dissolved in white spirit plus pigment.   No attempt was made to disguise the pentimenti which is visible across the columns behind the Virgin.  The picture was given a final varnish of Ketone resin dissolved in white spirit.

Appendix II:  König Paintings

Oil paintings in public collections in the United Kingdom which bear (or have borne) an attribution to Johann König (1586-1642)

 (1)  Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum
 Johann König
 Adam and Eve in Paradise
 Copper, 17 x 23.3 cm
 Inscribed lower centre 'Jon. König. fe:' and lower left 'Gene. 3 Ca.'
 Presented by Miss O. Ault, 1974; Inv.No. PD.63-1974
 Information from David Scrase, 1986

(2)  Oxford, Ashmolean Museum
Johann König
Toilet of Bathsheba
Copper, 23 x 33 cm
Inscribed lower right 'Johannes (?) König fecit'
Purchased 1945; Inv.No. WA1945.100
The Ashmolean Museum:  Complete Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings (Oxford), 2004, p.124

(3)  London, Courtauld Institute Gallery
Johann König(?) (After Elsheimer?)
Latona changing the Lycian Peasants into Frogs
Copper, 18.7 x 25.3cm
Bequeathed by Count Antoine Seilern, 1978
The Princes Gate Collection (London), 1981, no.33; M. Waddingham, 'Elsheimer Revised', Burlington Magazine, vol.114, 1972, p.610, n.53, as by König; K. Andrews, Adam Elsheimer (Oxford), 1977, p.166, No.A2, as ? one of the Pynas brothers

(4)  Chester, Grosvenor Museum
Attributed to Johann König
Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist
Copper, 28.2 x 22 cm
Transferred from the Chester Free Public Library, 1920; Inv.No. 1967.114
Attribution by Malcolm Waddingham, 1986

(5)  London, Dulwich Picture Gallery
Circle of Elsheimer (also attributed to König)
Susannah and the Elders
Copper, 23.5 x 29.9 cm
Bequeathed by Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811; Inv.No. 22
P. Murray, The Dulwich Picture Gallery:  A Catalogue (London), 1980, as Circle of Elsheimer; K. Bauch in Kunstchronik, vol.20, 1967, p.90, as by König; M. Waddingham, 'Elsheimer Revised', Burlington Magazine, vol.114, 1972, pp.610-611, as ? Thomann von Hagelstein

Notes

1. See 'Appendix:  Painting on Copper' in K. Andrews, Adam Elsheimer (Oxford), 1977, pp.169-70.
2. On 23 July 1920 twenty-nine oil paintings, 'Transferred from the Free Library', were accessioned in the Grosvenor Museum, Management Committee, Curator's Journal [1894-1936].  The entry reads: '70.  Virgin & Child with St. John, in a Landscape.  Oil, on copper panel 11" x 8½" by an Artist of the School of Rottenhammer'.  Only ten of these paintings remain in the museum.
3. Re-accessioned as 114.A.1967, Madonna and Child, Artist unknown (Curator's Journal Volume Three).
4. Letter dated 6 February 1986.
5. Letter dated 27 February 1986.
6. Letter dated 6 March 1986.
7. E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, vol.6 (Paris), 1976, p.282.  Andrews 1977 describes König's manner of painting as rather tight (p.154) and his drawing as pedantic (p.161).
8. J. Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (London), 1985, pp.323-4,329.
9. Hall 1985, pp.172,334; A.B. Jameson, The History of Our Lord, vol.1 (London), 1865, p.293.
10. A.B. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna (London), 1864, p.1i; Hall 1985, p.324.  Red signifies love, blue signifies heavenly love:  W.E. Post, Saints, Signs and Symbols (London), 1978, p.9.  In depictions of the Road to Calvary, Christ generally wears a blue cloak and a red under-garment (Hall 1985, p.266).
11. In Spanish art it was considered improper to paint the Virgin unshod:  according to Carducho, 'it is manifest that our Lady was in the habit of wearing shoes, as is proved by the much venerated relic of one of them from her divine feet at Burgos' (Jameson 1864, p.lii).
12. This type of halo was created by Early Renaissance artists; the halo was rarely used in post-Renaissance art.  The Child in the Chester painting was almost certainly originally depicted with a halo (and the Baptist quite probably so), since the use of the halo in Christian art was at first (from about the 5th century) used only for the three persons of the Trinity and the angels (Hall 1985, p.144).
13. Jameson 1864, p.lii; Post 1978, p.9.  The depiction of the naked Child upon white fabric seems to have been fairly usual in the early 17th century.
14. Matthew 27:59.  Mark 15:46.  Luke 23:53.
15. Hall 1985, p.172.  The difference in age between the Baptist and Christ in Italian art is variable:  sometimes the Baptist is barely older than Christ (and the Biblical six months appear to have been observed), as in the Holy Family with St Elizabeth and the Infant Baptist by Raphael (Munich, Alte Pinakothek); at other times the Baptist is significantly older than Christ, as in the Holy Family with the Infant Baptist by Barocci (London, National Gallery).  There seem to be few comparable examples for the considerable age difference in the Chester painting, where the infant Baptist is at least one and a half times the size of the Christ Child.
16. Jameson 1865, p.281.  The Biblical basis of this tradition is Luke 1:80 'As the child [John] grew up he became strong in spirit; he lived out in the wilds, until the day when he appeared publicly before Israel'.
17. The leather belt is not clearly depicted, but the rough coat is obviously encircled at the waist.  The coat is brown, which signifies renunciation of the world (Post 1978, p.9).
18. Jameson 1865, pp.283-4; Hall 1985, p.172.  This attribute is derived from Luke 7:24,26 'Jesus began to speak about him [John] to the crowds:  'What was the spectacle that drew you to the wilderness?  A reed-bed swept by the wind?  No? ... A prophet?  Yes indeed'.'  The reed is also connected with the Passion, since Christ may be depicted holding a reed sceptre in the Crowning with Thorns and the Ecce Homo (Hall 1985, pp.80,110).
19. Jameson 1864, p.123; Jameson 1865, pp.282-3.
20. The order of the columns is unclear, since their capitals are not shown.  The very simple pedestal corresponds closely to the illustrations of the Tuscan order in Sebastiano Serlio, L'Architettura, IV, 1540 (the first book to codify the five orders) and Vincenzo Scamozzi, Dell'Idea dell'Architettura Universale, 1615 (which provided the final codification of the orders).  However, the column in the Chester painting has an Attic base, which is found with all orders except the Tuscan; the Tuscan base is occasionally found on the Roman Doric, but the Attic is far more usual; and variations of the more elaborate type of base are found on the Ionic, Corinthian and Composite, but not the Roman Doric:  J. Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture (London), 1980, p.123.  The most likely order of the columns in the Chester painting is thus the Roman Doric.  The order of the columns may have a bearing on their symbolic interpretation since, stemming from Vitruvius, and reinterpreted and elaborated by Renaissance theorists, the Corinthian has always been regarded as female and the Doric as male, with the Ionic in between.  Serlio recommended that the Doric should be used for churches dedicated to the more extrovert male saints; the Ionic for matrons and men of learning; and the Corinthian for virgins, most especially the Virgin Mary (Summerson 1980, p.15).
21. A single column appears for the first time in the Bladelin Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden and an assistant (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie); this column was to hold a prominent place in numerous later Nativities:  E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol.1, (Cambridge, Mass.), 1953, pp.277,469.
22. Matthew 27:26.  Mark 15:15.  Luke 23:16,22.  John 19:1.
23. Hall 1985, p.123:  this column was perhaps in the colonnade that formed part of Pilate's praetorium, or judgment hall.  A style of architecture, believed to be derived from Pilate's house, featuring a colonnade of thin Corinthian columns, became an established tradition in early Italian Renaissance painting.
24. Panofsky 1953, p.469.  The Pesaro Altarpiece of 1519-26 by Titian (Venice, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari) includes the lower parts of two massive classical columns, some distance apart:  like those in the Chester painting they are unfluted, with Attic bases, and the one farthest to the right is on a pedestal (but with a strongly modelled cornice), whilst the pedestal of the other one is hidden.  (It has, however, been suggested that the columns may have been added to Titian's painting c.1669:  S. Sinding-Larsen, 'Titian's Madonna di Ca' Pesaro and its Historical Significance', Institutum Romanum Norvegiae, Acta ad archaeologiam et atrium historiam pertinentia, vol.1, 1962, pp.139ff.)  Two iconographic interpretations have been suggested for the columns in the Pesaro Altarpiece.  They have been identified as representing the Gate of Heaven, a title of the Virgin:  M. Levi D'Ancona, The Iconography of the Immaculate Conception in the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance (College Art Association of America), 1957, p.70,n.162.  They have also been identified as representing the columns Jachin and Boaz (1 Kings 7: 13-22) from the Temple of Solomon:  E. Forssman, 'Über Architekturen in der venezianischen Malarei des Cinquecento', Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, vol.29, 1967, p.108.  (The Temple of Solomon is another attribute of the Virgin:  Jameson 1864, p.xlv.)  However, it is appropriate to both these interpretations that the two columns should be some distance apart, whereas those in the Chester painting are side by side (and, strictly, Jachin and Boaz should be of bronze, not stone).
25. I am grateful to Fiona Mackenzie, formerly Natural History Assistant at the Grosvenor Museum, for identifying the trees in the painting.
26. Matthew 21:1-11.  Mark 11:1-10.  Luke 19:29-38.  John 12:12-15.
27. This incident which occurred in Jericho earlier on Christ's journey, is transferred to the scene of the Entry (Hall 1985, p.114).
28. Jameson 1864, p.xlvi; Hall 1985, p.123.  The other identified natural history elements are rowan, poplar and wild thyme.
29. Hall 1985, p.306.  The symbol of David's Tower (Song of Songs 4:4) occurs in medieval Litanies to the Virgin (Hall 1985, p.327).
30. The association of the title Lamb of God with the Christ Child is particularly appropriate, since the sacrificial lamb of the Passover 'must be without blemish, a yearling male' (Exodus 12:5).  The Passover prefigures the Last Supper which, in the institution of the Eucharist, foreshadows the Crucifixion.  The New Testament draws parallels between the Paschal Lamb and the Crucified Christ:  e.g., 1 Corinthians 5:7, 'our Passover has begun; the sacrifice is offered Christ himself'; Hebrews 9:14, Christ 'offered himself without blemish to God, a spiritual and eternal sacrifice'; 1 Peter 1:19, 'The price was paid in precious blood, as it were of a lamb without mark or blemish the blood of Christ'.
31. The placing of the Virgin's hand upon the Baptist's shoulder is quite a common motif, as in The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci (London, National Gallery).  In some arrangements the Virgin lays one hand on the head of the little St John (Jameson 1864, p.79).
32. Hall 1985, p.329.
33. The wound is generally depicted on the right side of the body, but by the early 17th century this symbolism was forgotten and the wound is found on either side (Hall 1985, p.85).
34. Compare the Madonna and Child with the Baptist and St Anne or St Elizabeth by Bronzino (London, National Gallery), the theme of which has been interpreted as 'The Christ Child recognising his Destiny of the Cross':  M. Levey, 'Sacred and Profane Significance in Two Paintings by Bronzino', Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art presented to Anthony Blunt (London), 1967, p.31.