Religious Peace of Augsburg on the Scene
St. Ulric
Here its Protestant Parson of the Ridinger Age
in Undescribed Second State
in the Copy Counts Faber-Castell
Ridinger, Johann Jacob (1736 Augsburg 1784). M. Johann Christoph Thenn of Augsburg Protestant Parson at St. Ulric … Three-quarter portrait standing under raised curtain, the left laid over opened bible, the right raised accordingly angled. Mezzotint after Gabriel Spitzel (also Spizel, 1697 Augsburg 1760). Inscribed: Gabriel Spitzel pinxit. / Joh. Jacob Ridinger sculps. A.V., otherwise in German as above + following. 40.3 x 26,7-26.9 cm.
Provenance
Counts Faber-Castell
their Ridinger sale 1958
with its lot no. 148
on the underlay carton
Radulf Count at Castell-Rüdenhausen
(1922-2004)
Th.-Stillfried (1876) + Schwarz (1910) 1436, both first state only; Counts Faber-Castell (1958) 148.
Not in Thienemann himself (1856) , Weigel, Art Stock Catalogue, pts. I-XXVIII (1838/57) , Silesian Ridinger collection at Boerner XXXIX (1885) , Coppenrath Collection (1889 f.) , Reich auf Biehla (1894) , Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger; 1900) , Rosenthal, Ridinger list 126 (1940).
Undescribed second state
with additional 6th line
as having not become known to Stillfried + Schwarz. Both concurring with but 5 lines subtext, closing with “born in the year 1729, 28th Oct. / Appointed to the office of sermonizing in the year 1758.” Here then followed by
“To the vicarage 1771 and to the senior councilor 1776.”.
Spitzel, on friendly terms with Johann Jacob’s father Johann Elias Ridinger for whom he arranged the important early stays at Count/Baron von Metternich in Regensburg, was himself also mezzotint artist and publisher, closed the publishing house in 1739 though in favor of mobility (i. a. Gera, Halle, Köthen, Berlin, since 1756 in Augsburg again). Thieme-Becker XXXI (1937), 391 f. mention among his portrait paintings of protestant parsons only those of Rentz + Schleißner, the latter at the Church of the Holy Cross in Augsburg.
Below with margin of 12 mm, on the left with irregularly fine (little) margin, top + below mostly trimmed to the edge of plate/subject, but still larger then Baron Gutmann’s copy (Schwarz) with just 39.8 x 26.8 cm. The visible traces of age (smoothed creasiness, horizontal center fold with tear of 3 cm, one such also in the curtain at the upper margin of the subject, four inessential-tiny scrape off injuries, the partial reverse fox-spotting perceptible from front in the text field only) contrasted by the proven general scarceness of the sheet, magnified by
the undescribed state perpetuating parson Thenn’s professional way
as disregarded for Faber-Castell in 1958. En passant at the same time as
an early example of protestant-catholic ecumenicity
with St. Ulric as joint church.
Offer no. 14,875 / EUR 230. (c. US$ 322.) + shipping
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