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

saleroom notice: 
We are grateful to Gode Krämer for bringing to our attention that the present work relates to a preparatory drawing (private collection; see “Faszination Barock“, ed. by G. Krämer/P. Prange/K. Bechler, exhibition catalogue, Berlin-Munich 2012, no. 51, ill.).

Provenance:
Private collection, France;
sale, Christie’s, London, 5 July 2007, lot 49;
Private Collection, Germany

Johann König prepared for the present composition with several drawings. The earliest, dated 1615, was once in the Perman Collection in Stockholm. A second drawing, which is signed and dated, is conserved in the Schlossmuseum in Weimar. A third drawing, varying the position of Christ’s arms, was sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam, on 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, on 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 sojourned in Venice from 1606/7 onwards, where he painted a miniature copy of Veronese’s Wedding at Cana. König is recorded 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. König was considered the most prominent painter of miniatures in Southern Germany besides Hans Rottenhammer.