Ivan the Hermit
Niklaus Michael Spengler (1700 - 1776).
Glass panel painted on reverse in eglomisé technique with gold and silver leaf and opaque and transparent pigments. Monogrammed "N:M:SP:" in lead black in the upper centre on the bellows of the wind instrument. Inscribed in brown ox gall ink on the reverse. Wooden frame gilded over red bole, H 18.5, W 23 cm.
This reverse glass painting may have been based on an engraving by Charles van Boeckel after Maerten de Vos (1532 - 1603), which was published in the series "Sylvae sacrae. Monumenta sactioris philosophiae quam" in around 1620. The work shows the composition reversed.
The piece presumably originally belonged to the series of reverse glass paintings after motifs by Maerten de Vos of which nine were sold by Koller in Zurich in 1996 (18th-20th September, lot 37). Seven of the works from this series were also signed "N.M.SP." in lead black and all nine of the pieces bore the same Latin inscription in brown ink on the reverse.
Nikolaus Michael Spengler (Konstanz 1700 - 1776 Darmstadt) came from a family of painters who emigrated from St. Gallen in 1582 and were documented as living in Konstanz for five generations. Spengler was employed by the Count of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1728 at the latest. He usually signed his works, as he did in the present piece.
Provenance
Rinck von Baldenstein family, Pruntrut/ Porrentruy.
Auctioned by Kaupp, Sulzburg, Marz 2004, lot 2131.
Auctioned by Plückbaum, Bonn 2016.