(1471–1528) Follower of, „The Little Fortune“, the monogram AD at lower left margin, pen and brown ink, on paper, 23.8 x 9.3 cm, the lower two corners added, browned, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

The present drawing is probably a copy after Albrecht Dürer's homonymous engraving (Bartsch 78), which he executed after his first sojourn to Italy in 1495/96. In contrast to Dürer's engraving "The Great Fortune" (Bartsch 77) the present topic does not represent an extensive allegory but was rather considered a nude study. Only the sphere points to the figure being the goddess of Fortune. She stands unsteadily on a small sphere and attempts to maintain her balance with the aid of a long, thin staff. In her left hand she holds a sprig of Eryngium, which frequently appears in Dürer early work as a symbol of love; the plant's aphrodisiac significance was described in texts by Pliny as well as in medieval herbal books. When placing Fortune upon her sphere, Dürer clearly intended a reference to her lack of reliability and to inconstancy. The spiral movement of the body and the head tilted to the left into profile and its dropped eyes add to the intended instability. Apparently Dürer was the first one who replaced the wheel of Fortune customary in medieval depictions with a globe and declared it an attribute of the goddess of Fortune. The goddess's placement upon her sphere suggest that Dürer's textual source was the Cebetis Tabula, a Stoic dialogue which is supposed to go back to Kebes, a pupil of Sokrates. Willlibald Pirckheimer translated this text into German for the first time. Fortune is described there as a blind female figure on a stone globe. Opposite to the engraving Fortune's arm is closer to the body and she is holding her staff more diagonal rather than parallel in regard of the picture's margin. Due to the technical insufficiencies the present drawing cannot be regarded a preliminary drawing for the print; drawings which were executed by Dürer in preparation of prints are freer in their compositions and more spontanous in the pen stroke. The figure of our drawing seems a little stiff and its proportions cannot convince so that Dürer authorship of this sheet cannot come into question. It seems more likely that a pupil copied Dürer's engraving; the sheet seems also considerably trimmed at the left margin and at the lower corners which may point to even more figures which may have originally been drawn on the sheet. Provenance: Viennese private collection Literature: Rainer Schoch (Ed.), Albrecht Dürer: das druckgraphische Werk, Munich 2001, Cat. 5, p.36; Fejda Anzelewsky (Ed.), Albrecht Dürer. Kritischer Katalog der Zeichnungen, Berlin 1984.