Orazio Borgianni’s etching, “The Crossing of the Red Sea”, 1615

Orazio Borgianni (aka Orazio Borgiani) (c1578–1616)

“The Crossing of the Red Sea” (TIB title) (“Le passage des Israëlites au Travers de la mer rouge” [Bartsch title]), 1615 (inscribed on plate), plate 31 from the series of 52 plates after Raphael, “The Loggia Paintings” (Bartsch title).

Etching on laid paper trimmed with chipped losses around the platemark edge and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 17 x 21.1 cm; (inner image borderline) 16 x 20.1 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower right corner) “1615 / [artist’s monogram]”.

Numbered on plate outside the image borderline: (lower left) “31”.

Lifetime impression of the only state. Note: attribution of this print to a lifetime impression is based on the line quality of the impression showing minimal wear to the plate
(cf. with the impression held by the Rijksmuseum [RP-P-OB-35.440]).

TIB 38 (17).29(319) (Sebastian Buffa [ed.] 1979, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century”, vol. 38, p. 390, cat. no. 31 [318]); Bartsch XVII.318.31

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:
(transl.) “In the foreground to the right is a group of Israelites who have safely crossed the Red Sea with the help of Moses. Moses stretches out his arm and lets the water of the sea flow back, drowning Pharaoh's army. In the background to the left drowning soldiers, horses and camels”

(http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.85383).

See also the description of this print at the British Museum:

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3047982&page=3&partId=1&searchText=Borgianni%20raphael%2031.

Condition: strong impression, showing no sign of wear to the printing plate, laid upon a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. There are chipped losses around the edges and corners of the sheet. The sheet has no significant stains or foxing but it shows appropriate minor age-toning.

I am selling this superb etching executed in the last year of the artist’s life and based on the design of the legendary Raphael (1483–1520) who had passed away only 95 years before this print was created, for AU$257 (currently US$162.73/EUR148.87/GBP130.57 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this rare late Renaissance period print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Coryn Boel’s etching, “The Monkey Game in the World”, c.1650

Coryn Boel (aka Quirin Boel; Quirin Boel) (c.1620–1668)

“The Monkey Game in the World” (Het Apenspel in de Wereld), c.1650 (1635–68), title plate to the series of six singeries—i.e. images of monkeys portrayed as humans—after David Teniers II (1610–90) (Hollstein 43–48), published by Frans van den Wyngaerde (aka Franciscus van den Wijngaerde; Frans van Wyngaerdt; Wyngart) (1614–79) in Antwerp.

Etching and engraving on laid paper with restorations, trimmed with a narrow margin around the platemark and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 11.6 x 15 cm; (plate) 11 x 14.5 cm; (image borderline) 10.8 x 14.3 cm.

Inscribed on plate: (on strap around globe at centre) "Het Apespel Inde Werelt"; (lower left) “D. Teniers inuentor. cum priuilegio"; (abraded and only partially decipherable at lower centre) "Franc. vanden Wijngaerde ex."; (lower right) "Corijn Boel. f.".

State ii (of ii) with the addition of the publisher's name.

Hollstein undescribed (title to nos.43-48).

The British Museum and Rïjksmuseum offer descriptions of this print:

https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3057357&partId=1&searchText=Wijngaerde+&page=1;

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.82721.

Condition: richly inked impression showing signs of wear to the printing plate. There are replenished corners and holes, flattened vertical folds and handling/surface marks. The sheet is trimmed with a narrow margin around the plate mark and is laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this fascinating early etching from the genre of singerie (aka “monkey trick”) images presenting a gentle satire of dancing and music for AU$330 (currently US$205.60/EUR189.15/GBP165.76 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this title plate for the series of six prints, “Different Companies from Human Life Presented by Monkeys”, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Jaspar Isaac’s engraving, “Ajax le Locrien, ou les Gyres”, c1609

Jaspar Isaac (aka Gasper Isac; Jaspar Isac; Gaspard Isac; Jaspar Isacsz; Jasper de Isaac) (fl.1585–1654)

Note: attribution of this engraving to Jaspar Isaac rather than the other engravers featured in the same publication—viz. Léonard Gaultier (1561–1635) and Thomas de Leu (1560–1620)—is based on the stylistic treatment of the portrayed subject (cf. “Evadne”, signed by Isaac that I have listed earlier and is currently available: https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2019/04/jaspar-isaacs-engraving-evadne-c1609.html).

“Ajax le Locrien, ou les Gyres”, c1609, after Antoine Caron (aka Antoine Charon) (1521–1599), illustration to Blaise de Vigenère’s (1523 –1596) translation of Lucius Flavius Philostratus (aka “the Athenian”) (c.170 – 247/250) and/or his son-in-law, Philostratus of Lemnos’ “Les images ou tableaux de platte peinture des deux Philostrates …”, first published in Paris in 1609 by Claude Cramoisy, followed by the edition by Abel l'Angelier's widow in 1614 or 1615. Also issued in 1637 by Mathieu Guillemot, Sebastien Cramoisy and C. Sonnius in Paris.

Archive.org offers an online view (and free-of-charge download) of the 1637 edition (see this print on page 384):

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008279552/page/n405/mode/2up/.

The mythological episode illustrated in this print matches the description offered by the Finnish Thesaurus and Ontology Service (finto):

‘… the return of Ajax the Lesser (the Locrian) after the fall of Troy > Ajax the Lesser shipwrecked; while he is scrambling ashore Neptune splits the rocks with his trident”

(http://finto.fi/ic/en/page/94K31).

I understand that the Neptune was unhappy with Ajax’s “sacrilegious behaviour”—to borrow a phrase from Wikipedia—and his fury extended beyond making Ajax fall; he also whipped up wild ocean currents—the gyres.

Engraving on laid paper with letterpress text verso, trimmed with a small margin and backed with a support sheet,

Size: (sheet) 26.2 x 21.3 cm; (plate) 23.6 x 19 (image borderline) 23.3 x 18.6 cm.

Condition: richly inked, near faultless early impression. There are past collectors’ pencil and pale ink notations in the lower margin recto and the letterpress text printed verso is partly visible recto. The sheet is laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper and is in excellent/museum-quality condition.

I am selling this superb engraving from c.1609 —a visually arresting late Renaissance masterpiece—for AU$320 (currently US$196.45/EUR180.94/GBP159.60 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable engraving with its fascinating treatment of lightning represented by castellated white lines—a visual device that I understand is symptomatic of artists who suffer from migraines—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Antonio Tempesta’s etching, “A Horse Galloping to the Left”, 1590

Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630)

“A Horse Galloping to the Left”, 1590, plate 12 from the series, “Horses of Different Lands” (Bartsch XVII.161.941–68).

The British Museum offers the following information regarding the series, “Horses of Different Lands”:

“Series of twenty-eight plates depicting horses from different lands; each plate showing one or two horses in a landscape; the series preceded by a frontispiece depicting Minerva in a chariot, driven by Prudence and Charity, and by a dedication sheet. 1590” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1548281&partId=1&searchText=tempesta+Horses+of+different+lands&page=1).

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed around the platemark with restored upper right corner and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 13.9 x 16.6 cm; (image borderline) 12.3 x 16.5 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower left) “Antonio tempest”

Numbered in brown ink below the image borderline: (lower right corner) “II”.

Numbered on plate below the image borderline: (blurred at lower centre) “I2”.

Monogramed on plate below the image borderline: (left) “A.T.F.” (acronym for Antonio Tempesta Fecit).

Lettered on plate below the image borderline in two lines of descriptive Latin verse in two columns: “Hic celer anti alios ualido quatit impede campos/ Ocior aut iaculo, aut uentos equante lagetta// Plerumq et uarijs maculis distinctus, anhelo/ Est comites reliquos afsuetus vincere cursu.”

TIB 36 (17).952 (161) (Sebastian Buffa [ed.] 1983, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century”, vol. 36, New York, Abaris Books, p. 196, cat. no. 952 [161]).

The Harvard art Museums and the Rijksmuseum offer descriptions of this print:

https://hvrd.art/o/236579;

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.184253.

Condition: very good impression printed in a silvery grey ink showing almost no sign of wear to the printing plate. The sheet is trimmed around the plate mark with restoration of the chipped upper right corner and laid upon a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this early illustration of a galloping horse exemplifying the period style of Mannerism with the extreme animation of the horse’s rearing lunge forward and the spiralling flow of its mane, for the total cost of AU$238 (currently US$146.35/EUR135.06/GBP119.25 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this superb etching executed in 1590, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Pietro Testa’s etching, “The Death of Cato”, 1648

Pietro Testa (1607/11–1650)

“The Death of Cato” (aka “The Death of Cato Uticensis”; “Death of Cato of Utica”), 1648, first state/ lifetime impression before the addition of the publication details of Arnold van Westerhout (aka Arnoldus Westerhout; Arnoldus van Westerhout) (1651–1725) in Rome (possibly circa 1681 when the publisher lived with Cornelis Bloemaert near San Ignazio) and later by Vincenzo Billy (aka Vincenzo Billi; Vincenzo Belli) (early 1700s).

Etching and engraving on laid paper with the watermark, “anchor in a circle topped by a star” (Roman paper 1638), trimmed around the platemark.

Size: (sheet) 27.9 x 41.4 cm.

Lettered with seven lines of Latin on panel at right addressed to Cato by Testa: “Sic fortitudinis, Cato; æternum præbes monimentum; qui/ turpe uitæ præcium seruitutem existimans, plus ad liber=/ tatem, quam ad mortem uiscera aperuisti. Quid gladi=/ um aufertis libertatis adsertorem'.  ecce manus/ uindex gloriosam manumittit animam. Silcant in=/ anes fletus: generosus Cato non interijt, nichil/ egit fortuna, Virtus semper in tuto est./ P.Testa 1648”.

State i (of iv) before the addition of Van Westhout's address at bottom centre and the indication of breakage of the plate at lower right corner of state ii; the replacement of Van Westerhout’s address with that of Vincenzo Billy of state iii; the abrasion of all addresses of state iv but still retaining the corner damage to the plate arising in state ii. See the first state impression held by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.185151.

TIB 4506.020 (Paola Bellini & Richard W Wallace [eds.] 1990, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Italian Masters of the Seventeenth Century”, vol. 45, Commentary, New York, Abaris Books, p. 148, cat. no. .020 S1 or S4; [Illus.] vol. 45, p.141); Bartsch 20 (Adam von Bartsch 1920–22, “Le Peintre Graveur”, Würzburg, p. 1270, cat. no. 20); Bellini 39 (Paolo Bellini 1976, “L'opera incisa di Pietro Testa”, Vicenza); Cropper 116 (Elizabeth Cropper 1988, “Pietro Testa, 1612–1650: Prints and Drawings”, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, pp. 252–56).

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco offer the following description of this print:

“numerous grieving men around a bed on which the dead Cato is sprawled face down, lamp in the corner, sad standing male figure at right by doorway, lamp in the corner, portrait busts over two doorways”

(https://art.famsf.org/pietro-testa/death-cato-1993639).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a different reading of what is portrayed:

“The suicide of the philosopher Cato, who lies on his bed pulling out his innards watched by horrified disciples”

(https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/399909).

Wellcome Collection offers the following insights regarding this print:

“Cato is shown lying on his bed, surrounded by his mourning friends, and killing himself by tearing out his own entrails. Cato Marcus Porcius (95-46 BC) leader of the Optimates, tried to preserve the Roman Republic against power seekers, in particular Julius Caesar. Cato's sole chance to preserve the republic lay in supporting Pompey, whom he had formerly opposed. After Pompey's defeat, Cato led a small remnant of troops to Africa, where he killed himself after evacuating his adherents by sea”

(https://wellcomecollection.org/works/gb28t3gn).

Condition: well-printed first state/lifetime impression printed in a silvery grey ink showing no sign of wear to the printing plate. The sheet is trimmed along the plate mark and is in a clean condition with no tears, losses, stains or foxing—but there are a few minor abrasions (e.g. on the figure above Cato). There are flattened fold marks verso but these are not visible recto.

I am selling this visually arresting etching showing the conservative Roman senator and Stoic philosopher, Cato the younger (95–46 BC), committing suicide by eviscerating himself rather than losing his liberty to Julius Caesar—mindful that Testa committed suicide two years after executing this etching—for AU$632 in total (currently US$382.40/EUR353.52/GBP311.45 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this grim celebration by Testa of a beautiful life–note that the tablet onto which Cato is falling is inscribed with the absolute geometry ratio of 6:12–please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold