Kokoschka, Oskar (Pöchlarn 1886 – Villeneuve 1980). Pope Leo X (Giovanni de Medici) after Raffael. Half-length portrait, sitting. Lithograph. (1972.) Signed in pencil: OKokoschka. 32 x 23.5 cm.

Wingler-Welz 472. – No. IL/LXXV (numbered IL/175) copies of the special impressions on Japanese laid paper printed in brown. The 100 further copies numbered in Arabic printed in blue on ordinary laid paper. These numbers given for the German and English market.

“ Kokoschka is fascinated … by the faces of the great popes who undertook the decisive steps to renew christian art by the art of the ancient age. In his economical drawings after Raffael’s portraits of popes Julius II and Leo X, more notes than striving for detailness, Kokoschka translates their posture and physiognomy into his own language. Both the popes, that the sketches reveal, would have been suitable models for him ”

(Heinz Spielmann).

After plate 13 of the sketch-book D of 1956-57 depicting the father of the “prime time of the Italian arts and sciences”. His age became known as the Leonidian one:

“ He made himself famous for all times by furthering the arts and through

creation  of  the  most  brilliant  buildings ”

(Meyer’s Konversations-Lexikon, 4^th ed., X, 691). Whereby he, second eldest of Lorenzo the Magnificent,

“ renewed  the  extinct  greatness  of  his  house ”

(Gerrit Walther in the FAZ of June 6, 2003).

That the letters of indulgence he sold especially for the completion of St. Peter’s were the first visible cause for the reformation outlines his person’s complexity.
Offer no. 14,125 / EUR  1176. / export price EUR  1117. (c. US$ 1555.) + shipping

“ Thank you Mr. Niemeyer, The prints (you are delivered two weeks ago) are being framed right now. My framer is very particular (works for the National Gallery … ) and I am having a perfect frame made for the large Ridinger (the imperial stag hunt Th. 67). Best regards ”

(Mr. J. R. L., November 19, 2003)