BR59.33: Death with Outstretched Right Arm

Identification and Creation

Object Number

BR59.33

People

Unidentified Artist

Title

Death with Outstretched Right Arm

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture

Date

1600-1650

Places

Creation Place: Europe, Germany, Upper Rhine

Culture

German

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/222836

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Lindenwood

Dimensions

26.4 × 13.5 × 7.8 cm (10 3/8 × 5 5/16 × 3 1/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Art dealer, Germany, sold]; [to M. Glueckselig & Son, New York, NY (?-1959), sold]; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1959.

Notes:
According to a letter from Frederick Glueckselig of M. Glueckselig & Son to Charles L. Kuhn at the Busch-Reisinger Museum dated April 28, 1959, Mr. Glueckselig purchased both BR59.32 and BR59.33 from a well-known German art dealer without a detailed provenance history. Mr. Glueckselig did not disclose the name of the German art dealer and merely specified that the dealer had recently passed away.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Association Fund

Accession Year

1959

Object Number

BR59.33

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Theodor Müller, "Frühe Beispiele der Retrospektive in der deutschen Plastik", Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse (Munich, Germany, 1961), no. 1, pp. 20-22
• Charles L. Kuhn, German and Netherlandish Sculpture, 1280-1800, the Harvard Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1965), pp. 25-26, cat no. 55 pp. 101-103 [as Personification of Death], repr. as pls. L and LI
• Joy Kenseth, ed., The Age of the Marvelous, exh. cat., Hood Museum of Art (Hanover, NH, 1991), cat. no. 45 p. 269, repr.
• Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., A Collector's Cabinet, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1998), pp. 43-44, rep. p. 44 as fig. 38, cat no. 98
• Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 219
• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 92, repr.
• Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures, brochure, Rubin Museum of Art (New York, NY, 2010), p. 1, repr. as fig. 1

Exhibition History

• The Age of the Marvelous, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, 09/14/1991 - 11/24/1991; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 01/25/1992 - 03/22/1992; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 05/24/1992 - 08/25/1992; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 10/06/1992 - 01/03/1993
• A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 05/17/1998 - 08/09/1998
• Objects for a Kunstkammer: Early European Collecting, 1550-1700, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 12/10/2005 - 11/19/2006
• Remember You Will Die: Death Across Cultures, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 03/19/2010 - 08/09/2010
• Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/07/2016 - 05/08/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/27/2022 - 01/01/2023
• The Ivory Mirror: The Age of Mortality in Renaissance Europe, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, 06/24/2017 - 11/26/2017
• Adam and Eve, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/01/2018 - 01/06/2019

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  Classification
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Verification Level