MUNICH.- In Focus is a new exhibition format at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich. During the intermediary phases when large exhibitions are being set up or dismantled, intimate ‘cabinet’ displays in the Vitrinengang will highlight distinctive works from the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung’s extensive holdings, which encompass over 400,000 miniatures, drawings, and prints.

These small presentations will appear in twelve display cases, and will make exquisite and striking objects from the collection accessible by focusing on a manageable number of works. The Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Munich will offer visitors the opportunity to rediscover famous works, encounter rarities, or discover works never before seen. Drawings and watercolours, woodcuts and copperplate engravings, etchings and lithographs will be brought into focus, the highest of ‘high’ art, as well as works that have hitherto received little critical attention. Whimsical and peculiar, gripping and baffling, fanciful and sober, subtly planned or quickly sketched, these works will provide fascinating visual and mental stimulation.

In Focus will continuously offer glimpses of works on paper from the 14th century to the present, displaying a vast range of hand-drawn works and printed images, always unexpectedly different in their fascinating abundance. These cabinet exhibitions arise out of a love for the graphic arts and by turns also provide a space for an intimate rendezvous, so to speak, offering the viewer an opportunity for moments of love at first sight.

The Fantastic Alphabet
The alphabet consists of 23 single sheets of Gothic minuscules (lower-case letters). (By contrast to today's, the medieval alphabet did not contain the letters j [= i], u and w [both = v]). Human and animal figures form the letters of the alphabet, including individuals of high and low status, saints, realistic animals, and mythical creatures. These figures are connected in often fantastical combinations within the silhouettes of the letters.

Stylistically and thematically, the series appears to be based on a modeldating from around 1400 in Bohemia, which Master E. S. playfully adapted around 1466 or 1467. Some letters have been copied faithfully, others completely redesigned. The series, once termed ‘colourful stuff’ (Max Geisberg 1909), in fact provides a small compendium of the late medieval world. Saints and their legends appear beside knights in tournament. Peasants and members of the lower classes offer objects of pity, while elegant lords and ladies enter the stage, stiff with dignity. ‘Wild men’ fight each other, and dragons and demonic mythical creatures appear acrobatically entwined. Ottoman Turks armed to the teeth represent the sinister allure and threat of the foreigner. Monks and nuns are mockingly presented in their hypocritical mendaciousness. Fools warn of the dangers of bodily lusts and represent the need for redemption in an imperfect world. By no means should these letters be seen as mere humorous imagery. Late medieval viewers took them quite seriously as symbols of the conflict between good and evil.

We can only speculate about the intended audience of these marvellous creations. The anticlerical jibes alone make the series unsuitable for the open market. An intellectual urban audience, as represented by Hartmann Schedel, might have enjoyed the prints, which simultaneously instruct and dazzle the viewer with their aesthetic allure. Perhaps the individual letters inspired a certain playfulness. Could Scrabble have been invented in the late 15th century after all? Only a few impressions of the series survive, perhaps due to natural wear and tear. Munich is the only collection in the world that owns all 23 of the letters. Their print quality is sensational throughout: Max Lehrs describes the Munich specimens as ‘magnificent’. Their provenance can no longer be reliably traced. The prints belong to the original collection, and were inventoried in 1822. They may have been transferred from the Munich Court Library. The lively mixture of gravity and jest, drollery and mocking reproof, ornament and salvation history, presented with artistic perfection in a breathtaking print quality makes viewing the series an extraordinary experience, even for a modern audience.

The Nameless Master
Master E. S. ranks as the most important German engraver of the late Gothic period. The artist is known only through his work; his identity remains a mystery. Evidence from his prints (stylistic characteristics, Alemannic inscriptions, watermarks, and crests) strongly suggest that he lived and worked in the Upper Rhine region and northern Switzerland in the mid-15th century. Over 300 copperplate engravings survive, and 200 more can be reconstructed based on copies and incomplete series of prints. A few prints from his late period, dated 1466 and 1467, bear the letters E S. His ‘Notname’ derives from these letters, although they may not in fact represent the initials of his actual name. The anonymous master probably died shortly after 1467.