Gallery of prints for sale

Monday 23 October 2017

Paulus Pontius’ engraving, “Raphael de Urbin”, 1630–40


Paulus Pontius (aka Paulus du Pont) (1603–1658)

“Raphael de Urbin”, 1630–40, after Raphael’s “The Czartoryski Raphael” (arguably a self-portrait; see Hasan Niyazi’s scholarly and important article about this portrait—“an iconic victim of Nazi art looting”: http://www.3pp.website/2012/08/the-czartoryski-raphael.html), published by Paulus Pontius, Antwerp

Engraving on fine laid paper lined onto a support sheet.
Size: (sheet trimmed unevenly) 26.2 x 19.1 cm; (plate) 25.8 x 18.2 cm; (image borderline) 22.5 x 17.4 cm
State ii (of iv) My attribution of the impression to this state is based on the publication details and the image itself matching the 2nd state impression held by the BM and Harvard.

Hollstein 115.II; Mauquoy-Hendrickx 1991 162 (Marie Mauquoy-Hendrickx 1991, “L'Iconographie d'Antoine Van Dyck”, Catalogue raisonné, 2 vols, Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale Albert Ier); New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 494.II (Van Dyck)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:
“Portrait of Raphael, half-length to right, wearing a beret; after his self-portrait.”
See also the technical details offered by the Harvard Museum: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/277800?position=1

Condition: marvellously crisp impression but with tears to the margins and uneven trimming. The sheet has been laid onto a support of fine washi paper to address these issues. There are also (almost invisible) spot restorations of small abrasions.

I am selling this masterpiece by one of the most important engravers of the Renaissance for the total cost of AU$190 (currently US$148.46/EUR126.41/GBP112.64 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this seldom seen engraving that is very likely a portrait of Raphael—certainly Pontius thought that it was hence the inscribed title—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


As a student I used to look at what I was told was a self-portrait of Raphael featured in his fresco, “The School of Athens.” In this enormous painting this so-called self-portrait of Raphael is shown in the guise of the legendary painter from antiquity, Apelles. Equally interesting to me at this time was that I was also told that Raphael’s true love in life is shown on the far left of the scene in the guise of the great Alexandrian female scholar, Hypatia. I must admit that my view of Raphael as a student was that he looked like a chap that could not catch a ball—perhaps closer to a chap that DEFINITELY could not catch a ball even if it were thrown underarm towards him. Moreover, my perception of the “love of his life”—and of course I could be very wrong—was the she was type of sensible lady who would only wear comfortable shoes.

What I find interesting in light of my early assessment is that when I examine this portrait of him by Pontius I feel that my early thoughts were close to the truth. I tend to agree with those who believe that this is not really a portrait of a man at all because of one seemingly trivial but probably important fact: he lacks an Adam’s apple—the laryngeal prominence—in the neck.

For those interested in this portrait I strongly recommend reading Hasan Niyazi’s (2012) highly informative article, “The Czartoryski Raphael”: http://www.3pp.website/2012/08/the-czartoryski-raphael.html  







2 comments:

  1. I need to do a school work about Rapahel and I'm still deciding what image I should put on the cover, is the man represented in the drawing Rapahael? Just to clear things out.

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    Replies
    1. There are arguments both ways in terms of whether the portrayed sitter is Raphael or not. If you choose to claim that it is of Raphael you certainly have a long history of claims that it is the master. If you want my opinion, however, it isn’t ... based on my discussion above.

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