Lot 11

Hans Christoph Schürer (1590 - 1622) ALLEGORY OF PRUDENCE

In his recent overview of the pupils and followers of Hans von Aachen, German art historian Jürgen Zimmer mentions the Saxon painter Hans Christoph Schürer, an artist of the Rudolfine School in Prague. Hans Christoph Schürer left only a few traces in archival documents from 1609 and 1616. In 1609, his mother asked the Saxon Elector for a grant to send her son to Prague to study under Hans von Aachen. To date, only one signed drawing, *The Unequal Couple*, is known to exist in the collections of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, although he is credited with a cycle of unsigned *Allegories of the Five Senses* and a series of deities: Juno, Venus, and Cupid. The allegory of wisdom or prudence (Prudentia) depicted here belongs to the celebrated virtues; since Giotto’s depiction, her attribute has been a mirror, which serves as a tool for prudent self-knowledge and a pragmatic approach. In the works of later artists, a snake also appears in the hand of a beautiful woman holding a mirror (e.g., Piero del Pollaiuolo, 1470) as a symbol of adversity and danger that requires prudence. On the reverse of the painting is the inaccurate modern label “Allegory of Purity,” which refers to Chastity (Castitas), who is usually depicted differently, often as a veiled virgin figure with a unicorn. The mirror is also typically an attribute of the vice of Pride (Superbia).