Master of the "can heads", Mars?, Around 1530/40

This high-quality carving depicts a helmeted, martial male head in strict profile. It is presumably Mars, the god of war. Numerous ancient Roman coins have similar depictions of the helmeted head of Mars (cf. gold coin from Etruria, British Museum R.7125). Characteristic for the early 16th century, however, would also be its interpretation as a fantastical portrait of a nobleman with a full goatee. Only the long moustache as a prominent feature is shown in three-quarter view. The helmet, decorated with volutes and acanthus leaves, has a raised visor ending in a flower. The carving was probably created by the so-called "Master of the Canned Heads" in the first half of the 16th century. Not much is known about this mysterious carver, only the works attributed to him are representative of his great talent. This relief is closely related to that of a centaur with helmet and elaborately carved goatee in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (Kunstkammer, 3878). The elaboration with smoothly polished surface sections and finely worked-in details is typical of the master with this provisional name. 

There are also similarities to works by the carver and medallist Hans Daucher (Ulm 1486 - 1538 Stuttgart). Especially his medals with profile portraits are similar to the work shown here, namely in the strict profile and the striking facial physiognomy. However, this carving is much more finely executed in the surface modelling, whereby the prominent parts of the face with wide-open eyes are hardened in a determined facial expression. 

Further comparisons can be made with works by Hans Kels the Elder (Kaufbeuren c. 1480 - 1559 Kaufbeuren), also a carver and medallist. He produced Mannerist small-format relief art that can be situated in the secular realm. A famous example is the board game for the "Langer Puff" of 1537 (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Kunstkammer, 3419), where he possibly worked in a workshop-like division with his sons Hans Kels the Younger and Veit Kels. The playfully virtuoso carved relief presented here can easily be embedded in this miniature art movement of the early Renaissance.   

Bibliography:

Thomas Eser, Hans Daucher. Augsburg Small Sculpture of the Renaissance, Munich/Berlin 1996. 

Theodor Hampe, Allgäuer Studien zur Kunst und Kultur der Renaissance - II. Zur Genealogie der Künstlerfamilie Kels, in: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (ed.), Festschrift für Gustav von Bezold. Mitteilungen aus dem Germanischen Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1918/1919, 42-49.