(Nuremberg 1586–1642)
Ecce Homo,
monogrammed and dated lower right: IK. F. 1618,
oil on vellum, heightened with gold, 26.5 x 21 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, France;
sale, Christie’s, London, 5 July 2007, lot 49;
Private collection, Germany;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 20 October 2015, lot 43;
private European collection

The present work is a refined example of the oeuvre of the South-German master Johann König. Gode Krämer, relates the present work to a preparatory drawing currently in a private collection (see Faszination Barock, ed. by G. Krämer, P. Prange, K. Bechler, Berlin/ Munich 2012, no. 51, illustrated). A second drawing, which is signed and dated, is conserved in the collection of the Schlossmuseum, Weimar. A third drawing, varying in the position of Christ’s arms, was sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam, 25 November 1991, lot 228. A further drawing in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, which has been dated to 1622, is related to a painting sold at Phillips, London, 16 April 1991, lot 55. Both of these works – the drawing and the painting – deviate from the present composition in the addition of three further figures in the background.

Johann König travelled to Venice in 1606/07, where he painted a miniature copy of Veronese’s Wedding in Cana. König is recorded also to have sojourned in Rome between 1610 and 1613. In 1614 he returned to his native town, Augsburg. König’s landscapes are closely related to those of Adam Elsheimer and Paul Bril. He was considered the most prominent painter of miniatures in southern Germany besides Hans Rottenhammer.