Figure on right is BR59.32, figure on left is BR59.33. © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Lindenwood
Dimensions
26.4 × 13.5 × 7.8 cm (10 3/8 × 5 5/16 × 3 1/16 in.)
Provenance
[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
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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

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

Related Works

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu