Summary:

Albrecht Dürer painted the painting Our Lady of the Rosary (the saint's day of the rosary, Figure 1) during his second stay in Venice in 1506. The painting depicts Our Lady with the Child presenting the wreaths of roses to high church and state dignitaries, led by Pope Julius II and Emperor Maximilian I. A man in blue appears behind the emperor. The German historian of art Fedja Anzelewsky thinks that this might be the banker and donator Georg Fugger. This paper has the purpose to prove that the man in blue is not the donator Georg Fugger, but the imperial secretary, diplomat and humanist, the man from Korčula Jakov Baničević.

 

1.      Introduction

The painting Our Lady of the Rosary, oil on board, was made in Venice between February 7 and September 8, 1506 for the German trade colony and for their national church of St Bartholomew in Rialto. The board consists of 13 vertical glued pieces of board 10 mm thick. Joints are reinforced behind with linen cloth. The plaster basis is, according to Venetian habit, mixed with ochre.

This painting by A. Dürer is so damaged that it can be considered a ruin.

( Figure 2). The whole middle part of the painting is damaged, from Mary's head below, except for some narrow strips and the left part of the celestial throne from the upper edge to the head of the Dominican; there are damages over the whole board.

This painting was mentioned as very damaged as early as 1635 during the exhibition in Wien and Budweis in the collection of Emperor Rudolf II. It was moved in 1631 (during the Thirty Years' War) in order not to fall in the hands of the Swedes. According to the opinion of Friedrich Winklers, damages occurred during the transport in a wagon. The Prague painter Karel Skreta was the first one who tried to repair the painting in 1663, but it seems that it was not done thoroughly. The painter Johann Gruss from Leitmeritz restored it between 1839 and 1841. He completed the parts which were missing. The first part of the painting was completed under the lead of the painter Tadlik while the other part was completed through the mediation of Tausing in Wien. Emperor Rudolf II bought the painting in 1506 for the sum of 900 ducats. It was sold at auction in 1782 for 1 gulden and 18 creutzers, and later in Prague for 22 guldens. The Ministry of Education bought it in 1934 from the Royal Colony of the Premontres but it was later sold to the National Gallery in Prague, where it is still today.

 

2.      Georg Fugger – the Man in Blue

The rise of the Fugger family began with Hans Fugger in the free royal town of Augsburg in 1367, and it would become, hundred and fifty years later, one of the richest merchant and banking families in the whole of Europe. It would support financially the emperors: Friedrich III, Maximilian I, and Carl V. and achieve its greatest rise and power under the leadership of Jakob Fugger the Rich (Jakob Fugger der Reiche, Figure 5), the youngest of the seven brothers (Fugger von der Lilie), from whom Ulrich and Georg participated in the family business. We find German merchants in Venice as early as 1288, gathered in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The young Georg went there in the seventies, after his father's death, to represent the Fuggers' trade interests. Giovanni Bellini made his portrait in 1471 as a Renaissance young gentleman of twenty one years. (Figure 3). As the Fugger family dominated the Fondaco dei Tedeschi when the painting Our Lady of the Rosary was made, it is generally accepted that they were the main donators of the painting. Anzelewsky wrote about this:

“Dürer must have received the order for the altar painting. Oudendijk Pietrrse, who sticks firmly to Dürer's letters, considers questionable that German merchants in Venice requested this because the German community never restricted itself to such a group. In fact, besides German merchants, there was a great number of German artisans in Venice, first of all bakers and shoemakers. From that point of view there are four possibilities regarding the question of the ordering party: the whole German community who had the altar in St Bartholomew's church, merchants (gathered in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi), German artisans, or finally one orderer.” He wrote at another place: “Among gathered people, we can notice, on the right side, a man clothed in blue with the rosary in his hands. Neuwirt thought that he represented Mosaner or Bernard Hirschvogel. Leib rejected the possibility that it was Ulrich Fugger. Georg represented Fugger in Venice in the middle of the seventies of the 15^th century, which is proved by the portrait made by Bellini. There is a similarity between this portrait and the mentioned one with grey-blue locks. The youngest of the Fugger brothers died on April 15, 1506 in his 53^rd year, and Dürer made the sketch for his tomb the same year. It would have been understandable that he depicted his figure on the painting from memory, as he did later on the occasion of Konrad Celtis' death.” Ugo Ruggeri wrote: “Dürer stayed a long time in Augsburg (on the way to Italy, remark of the author) where he was the guest of Conrad Fuchs von Evenhofen and where he met the family of the banker Fugger, to whom he owed the order for the Saint's Day of the Rosary, for the German national church of St Bartholomew in Venice.” However Musper wrote: “Others gather from left and right sides of the central group in the scene of adoration, among whom we discern the donators of the painting towered over by angels carrying wreaths.” And again Anzelewsky: “The painting represents the distribution of the Rosary by Mary, Christ and St Dominic to the Christians. The clergy led by the Pope kneel on the left side, and laymen with Maximilian at the head on the right half. The man behind him is probably Georg Fugger.”

All critics assume that the man in blue is the donator, while Anzelewsky thinks that it is Fugger. Georg had 53 years in 1506 when the painting Our lady of the Rosary was created, and therefore it seems rather unusual that Dürer would have used Bellini's' painting on which the portrayed Georg is 21 years old. Is it possible that Dürer did not meet Georg in 1505 when he stayed a long time in Augsburg (as Ruggeri writes) where he received the order for the painting?

However it may be, the portrait of Anton Fugger, his son, is of key importance in order to know with great certainty what Georg looked like then. (Figure 4). I took into consideration the already mentioned portrait of Jakob Fugger by A. Dürer (Figure 5) and that of Cristoph Fugger by C. Amberger in order to compare the common traits of the Fuggers' faces with great probability. The common thing to all these portraits is that these persons sit for the artist, and that the painters were realists on whose work this analysis can be based. I did not take into consideration numerous Kilian's and others' portraits of the Fuggers which were made much later, mostly after the death of the persons they represented. If we compare the portraits of Georg (Figure 3) and Anton (Figure 4), who are in an almost identical position, we shall notice a series of the same or almost the same details. A typical rounded nose, a funnel-shaped gap between the eyes, eyebrows which rise on expressed arches, eyes (the left eye identical), the contour of the right side of the face on the background of the painting (emphasised orbital arch). The ear, which is not seen on Georg's portrait, speaks about the typical characteristics of the Fuggers. If we compare this with the man in blue (Figure 7), we find nothing at all. It is evident that it is another person. The similarity which is mentioned by Anzelewsky, the same position of the face and hair, is an often position in Dürer at that time (Figure 8). As regards the hair, it is natural that Georg is portrayed on Bellini's portrait with the luxuriant hair when he was 21. The fact is also that all the Fuggers were depicted with a high balding forehead.

 

3.      Jakov Baničević – the Man in Blue

The Rosary conquered Europe less than five hundred years ago. The Dominican order was the forerunner of its popularisation and the discovery of the Rosary was attributed to St Dominic. The first painting of the Rosary can be found in the Köln Dominican church of St Andreas. It seems that Dürer used this popular motif which was suitable for the German enclave in Venice as it depicted the pope and the emperor, and the Germans were the citizens of the Holy Roman Empire. The emphasis of the painting was on that fact and not on the presentation of the donator and orderer. The composition of the painting confirms this. Besides the composition – the triangle in which the figures of Mary, the pope and the emperor are incorporated – one notices the symmetry of the two groups: the church dignitaries on the one hand and the secular ones on the other (FIgure 10). A special composition connection exists between the bishop behind the pope's back and the man in blue behind the emperor's back. Their eyes are at the same level, and the imaginary line which connects them goes exactly above the pope's head and the emperor's head. (Figure 11). Such a conception of the painting speaks in favour of Musper's formulation that these are high church and state dignitaries and not clerics and laymen. The difference is that the first formulation and the mentioned symmetry excludes the presence of the donator (at least in these groups).

Jakov Baničević was born at Žrnovo on the island of Korčula on October 15, 1466 and died in Trento, Italy on November 19, 1532. He obtained his doctorate in philosophy and theology in Bologna and Padua. He devoted himself to diplomacy in 1493 at the age of 27. His friendship with Pirckheimer, who devoted to him several of his works began most probably in Padua where both of them studied. As both Pirckheimer and Dürer come from Augsburg and are of same age and blood-brothers and close friends (this was the cause why Dürer became interested in the Italian painting of the fifteenth century, and also in the ancient painting, which would be a constant in his further work), it is not excluded that Dürer knew Baničević, or heard about him at least from Pickerheimer, when he stayed in Italy for the first time. During his second stay in Venice in the summer of 1505, Baničević was not an unknown student as it was the case eleven years before. He was then rich and famous. He associated with scientists and humanists and studied mathematics, geometry, Latin and humanist literature.

In 1506, Maximilian had been 13 years already the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The house of Hapsburg began with him its sudden rise. “Maximilian considered himself as the successor of Roman emperors and had humanistic inclinations which he expressed in his literary works, a curious mixture of medieval epic forms and a new consciousness of the value of man as an individual.” Baničević had been also 13 years in diplomacy. He accompanied Cardinal Rjmund Peraudij, the papal commissioner for indulgences, to Germany, and he developed his political missions at the imperial court working for Pope Julius II. He was mentioned in May of 1502 as the imperial secretary for the affairs outside Germany (extra Germaniam), so, according to P.Bembo, he was the secretary of the imperial embassy in Rome. As the Saint's Day of the Rosary was the painting intended for the German enclave in Venice, it is quite logical that the first person behind the Emperor is Baničević. It is also understandable that Dürer and Pirckheimer, his friends, are above Baničević's head. (Baničević would arrange the pension for Dürer with the Emperor in 1515, and Durer would make the coat of arms for Baničević after he obtained the title of a nobleman).

Finally, if we compare the portrait of the man in blue (Figure 7) with Baničević's portrait (Figure 12), despite different positions of faces, and different techniques, we notice the similarity: a narrow distinctive nose, eyebrows, orbital arches which are not emphasised in a high arch, unprominent cheekbones and hair. The lower lip was renovated and therefore not authentic.

 

4.      Conclusion

The painting The Feast Day of the Rosary depicts, in the scene of adoration, high church and state dignitaries, lead by Pope Julius II and Emperor Maximilian I. A man in blue is depicted behind the Emperor's back. Due to the fact that the face is almost undamaged, the same as Dürer painted it, we can confidently say, comparing it with Fugger's paintings, that it is not Georg Fugger.

The man in blue is the imperial secretary, who, during the creation of the painting (in 1506) was on the duty of the imperial secretary for the territories outside Germany (extra Germanima), and he was working at the imperial court in favour of Pope Julius II. We speak about the diplomat and humanist, Croat, man from Korčula, Jacob Bannissuus Dalmata.

 

(translated from Croatian by Živan Filippi)