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Thursday 12 July 2018

(Attrib.) Aegidius Sadeler II’s engraving, “Jeremiah thrown out of the temple by Pashihur”, 1582


(TIB attrib.) Aegidius Sadeler II (aka Gillis Sadeler; Egidius Sadeler; Ægedius Sadeler) (c1570–1629) or (Hollstein attrib.) Johan Sadeler I (aka Johannes Sadeler; Johann Sadeler; Jan Sadeler) (1550–1600)

“Jeremiah thrown out of the temple by Pashihur” (TIB title), 1582, after the design by Maarten de Vos (1532–1603), plate 8 from the series of 11 plates, “Scenes from the Old Testament”, published by Aegudius Sadeler II in 1582.

Etching and engraving on laid paper trimmed near the platemark with narrow margins and backed with a support sheet.
Size: (sheet) 25.3 x 20.6 cm; (plate) 25.1 x 20.4 cm; (image borderline) 23.1 x 20.2 cm
Inscribed on the plate within the image borderline along lower edge: (left of centre) “Martin de vos inuent:”; (right of centre) “G Sadeler. excudit 1582”
Lettered in two lines of Latin text below the image borderline: “Jeremias vrbis Jerosolymorum …/ … conijcitur. IEREMIOAE IX & XX.”
State i (of i)

TIB 7201.404 (Isabelle de Ramaix & Walter L Strauss [eds.] 1998, “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 72, Part 2 [Supplement] Abaris Books, p. 285); Hollstein Dutch 123 (Hollstein 1980, vol. 21, no. 123 [Johan Sadeler I]); Ramaix 1989, p. 20, no. 131.

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:
(transl.) “The prophet Jeremiah is beaten at the temple entrance by the priest Paschur. His henchmen beat the prophet into chains and cast him into the dungeon. Jeremiah prays for a crowd in the temple in the back of the temple. The print has a Latin inscription with an explanation from the Old Testament and is the eighth print of an eleven-part series.”

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression—undoubtedly a life-time/early impression based on the strength of the lines—with narrow margins and in near pristine condition for its considerable age (i.e. there are no tears, holes, creases, abrasions, stains or foxing). The print is backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this superb museum-quality impression exemplifying the Mannerist interests of the late 1500s in dynamic movement—note the contrast between the portrayed turmoil of the figures and the straight lines of the architecture framing them—theatrical lighting and dramatic gesture, for the total cost of AU$246 (currently US$181.44/EUR155.70/GBP137.55 at the time of posting this print) 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 visually arresting engraving, 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


My pondering about the “true” engraver of this unsigned print had me leaping in all directions. The conundrum that I faced was that the Rijksmuseum attributed the engraving to Johan Sadeler I (aka Johannes Sadeler; Johann Sadeler; Jan Sadeler) (1550–1600) as did the Hollstein (1980) catalogue raisonné for Johan Sadeler I (see vol. 21, no. 123), but this attribution was not shown in the other august catalogue raisonné for Johan Sadeler I: “The Illustrated Bartsch.” Indeed I spent a lot of time leafing through the Bartsch volumes dealing with Johan with no success in my quest to find this print. Fortunately at the end of my search I did what I should have done at the start and I consulted the table of concordance to find the link between Hollstein’s catalogue number 123 and TIB. To my surprise I discovered that the TIB catalogue number in the concordance was not with Johan but with Aegidius Sadeler II! In short, the information by TIB about this print and its engraver may be found listed in Isabelle de Ramaix’s (1998), “The Illustrated Bartsch: Aegidius Sadeler II”, vol. 72, Part 2, Supplement, p. 285.

If I were asked for my opinion about who the “true” engraver of this very powerful print is likely to be I would hesitantly lean towards TIB’s attribution of Ageidius Sadeler II rather than to Hollstein’s attribution of Johan Sadler I. To my eyes, the treatment of the forms has the subtle attributes of Aegidius’ hand even though the prints of the Sadeler family of printmakers are very similar stylistically. Moreover, as Aegidius’ name, “G[illis] Sadeler”, is also inscribed on the plate as the publisher of the print, I favour the attribution of TIB. I must however, point out that Isabelle de Ramaix, who complied the Aegidius Sadeler II catalogue, adds another dimension of complexity to the issue of establishing who the real engraver is by proposing that the plate might actually be by Aegidius Sadeler I and that “the printing may have been done by Aegidius II, as an adolescent” (ibid).







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