Screw magnate buys Holbein
August 1 2011
Picture: Staedel Museum
Holbein's Darmstadt Madonna has been sold in Germany for a sum in excess of $70m. The buyer was, Reinhold Wuerth, the German industrialist whose family business makes screws (amongst other things). The seller was the Prince of Hesse, who faced a large bill for death tax. The picture is barred from export outside Germany, hence the apparent bargain price.
The picture is in quite amazing condition (you can zoom in on it here), and probably the best surviving guide to Holbein's technique. If you ever get half a chance to see it, do. I saw it about a year ago, and was so amazed at the level of finish and realism in areas such as the carpet that my brain for a moment could not compute that I was looking at a painting, and not an actual carpet. My eyes were literally deceived. It reminded me of Samuel Pepys when he first saw one of Simon Verelst's flower paintings (on 11th April 1669):
...a Dutchman newly come over, one Everelst, who took us to his lodging close by and did show us a little flowerpott of his doing, the finest thing that I ever think I saw in my life – the drops of dew hanging on the leaves, so as I was forced again and again to put my finger to it to see whether my eyes were deceived or no. He doth ask 70l for it; I had the vanity to bid him 20l – but a better picture I never saw in my whole life, and it is worth going twenty miles too see.
