Noli Me Tangere

around 1860, Stamp of the studio of the artist CAG at the bottom left, sheet slightly torn in the upper right corner Albrecht Dürer was the most copied artist of his time and the enthusiasm he aroused among German engravers , was decisive in this regard. Nearly two hundred literal copies and other partial reworkings and quotations were executed during Dürer's lifetime, from his prints. Absolute model for many artists, in the forefront of which the students he trained in his studio, it is here in a desire to identify completely with the master and to extend his work that Schauffelein affixes the famous monogram AD in bottom left of our print (Ill.1). Painter, wood engraver and draftsman born in Nuremberg, Hans Leonhardt was active in Dürer's studio from around 1504 to 1507 alongside Hans Baldung Grien and Hans Süss von Kulmbach before later collaborating in Hans Holbein the Elder in Augsburg around 1508. A brilliant draftsman, Camille-Auguste Gastine benefited from the Ingresque influence diffused within the Parisian artistic milieu in the 19th century. A student of the historicist painter Paul Delaroche at the Beaux-Arts, he participated in numerous wall decoration projects. In 1856, he collaborated on the decoration of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près alongside Hippolyte Flandrin then on the decoration of the Saint-Joseph chapel of the Saint-André Cathedral in Bordeaux with Sébastien Cornu as well as the Chapel of the Château de Broglie with Savinien Petit. The artist draws here on tracing paper a series of engravings after the masters of the Nordic Renaissance (Martin Schongauer (1448-1497), Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Hans Bandung Grien (1484-1545), Albrecht Altdorfer (1430 -1538), Lucas de Leyde (circa 1494-1533)) from which he drew inspiration in order to stimulate his creativity, perfect his art and the fluidity of his compositions, from which our sheet is taken. From the Latin noli me tangere: "do not touch me", the biblical passage illustrated by our drawing evokes the sentence pronounced by Christ, dressed as a gardener, during his appearance to the apostle Mary Magdalene just after his Resurrection from the tomb. Ill.1. Hans Leonhard Schauffelein (circa 1485-1540), Noli me tangere, 1504, woodcut, false AD monogram lower left, h;182 xl; 182mm. Louvre Museum, Graphic Arts Department, Edmond de Rothschild reserve.