Literature

In 1926 the coloured woodcut Maria in Ährenkleid by the Rapperswil master Firabet appeared on the Munich art market; the then head of the Graphische Sammlung of the ETH, Rudolf Bernoulli, engaged himself with great enthusiasm and at high stakes for the acquisition of this piece. Single sheets on which text and image are carved into one woodcut or one metal plate generally count among the earliest examples of European graphic art and are of the greatest rarity.

The purchase of the print was possible thanks to the support of the Gottfried Keller Foundation and especially because of a capital exchange of doublets. From the collection itself nine etchings by Rembrandt, three sheets by Dürer, two by Mantegna and, above all, a copy of the famous copper engraving Kampf der nackten Männer by Antonio Pollaiuolo which were contained in a convolute of twenty doublets had to be handed over. A second woodcut by Firabet, the Christus am Kreuz, had already been in the collection since 1895; this constituted a further reason to ensure that the first sheet should be obtained for Zurich.

The woodcut Maria im Ährenkleid shows a cult idol, which was first honoured in the Cathedral of Milan. Graphic art of the early period is almost always devotional art. When the Abbey of Einsiedeln, already an important destination for pilgrims during the Middle Ages, was getting ready to prepare for the major Engelweihe festival of 1466, the abbot consulted the pope in person to request the renewal of the plenary indulgence for the Einsiedeln pilgrims; his request was successful. The festival of the Engelweihe commemorates the consecration of the Gnadenkapelle, which, in mediaeval belief, was blessed by Christ himself. This is the most important festival in Einsiedeln. It was celebrated with particular pomp when, as in 1466, September 14 fell on a Sunday. For this reason the Master ES was commissioned to produce copper engravings in three formats, each of them showing the Madonna. It was probably on the same occasion that a coloured block book appeared retelling the legend of Saint Meinrad, to whom the monastery dates back. Finally 130,000 pilgrim’s badges were sold at the festival.

A few years after the purchase of the woodcut mentioned above a whole convolute volume of such early prints became available. An album of mainly coloured woodcuts from the fifteenth century had been kept in the library of the monastery at St. Gall. This was due to be sold at auction in Berlin in November 1930. It was not only Rudolf Bernoulli who was to make his feelings felt: a storm of indignation broke out against this sale of a unique cultural asset. Finally it was possible, with the Kunstmuseum Basel, to bring back to Switzerland eighteen prints, seven of which are now held in the Graphische Sammlung of the ETH.