Gallery of prints for sale

Thursday 18 October 2018

Raphael Sadeler I’s etching (with engraving), “Landscape with a Chapel”, c1590


Raphael Sadeler I (1560/61–1628/32)

“Landscape with a Chapel” (Rijksmuseum title) (aka “Mountain Landscape with a Wooden Bridge and a Chapel on a Rock’ [TIB title]), c1590, after a drawing by Paul Bril (c1553/4–1626) in the Duke of Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth.

Etching and engraving on fine laid paper backed with a support sheet.
Size: (sheet) 26.3 x 33.7 cm; (plate) 206 x 27.4 cm; (image borderline) 19.8 x 27.3 cm
Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower right) “P Bril inuent: R. Sadeler scalp.”

TIB 7101.200 (Isabelle de Ramaix [ed.] 2006, ‘The Illustrated Bartsch: Raphael Sadeler I”, vol. 71, Part 1 [Supplement], Abaris Books, p. 287); Nagler 1835–52, no. 138, 2; Le Blanc, no. 125; Wurzbach, no. 125, 2; Hollstein 1980, vol. 21, no. 218; Edquist, p. 319, no. 48a.

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:
(transl.) “A hilly landscape with a wooden bridge in the foreground. Two travelers walk towards a chapel on the right in the background.”

State i (of i) Note: the crisp linework with no sign of wear to the plate suggests that this is a lifetime or an early impression.

Condition: richly inked and in excellent condition (apart from a patch of restoration in the upper margin) with generous margins. The sheet has been laid onto a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this museum quality impression—radiant with strong contrasts of light and dark—that literally invites the eye to stroll along the portrayed pathways into the far distance, for AU$345 in total (currently US$246.53/EUR213.96/GBP188.14 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 early masterpiece of landscape etching (with 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


What I love about 17th century landscapes, like this superb example, is that the context in which they were created helped to shape the meanings that they project. For instance, the composition of this print is based on a drawing by Paul Bril whose underpinning interest in landscape fits into the tradition of “Weltlandschaft”/ “World Landscape” (i.e. to portray a landscape from a great height as if the view were a crystallisation of the cosmos complete with allegorical narratives), the period style of Mannerism (i.e. a leaning to portray the landscape with a theatrical touch) and the notion of the landscape as having an inner soul of natural forces—a way of looking at landscape termed “Lady Landscape”. Mixed into this contextual brew helping to shape this landscape is Raphael Sadeler’s personal leaning to the 17th century notion of “Quietism” (i.e. creating spiritually tranquil scenes replete with vanitas and memento mori symbolic moral guides—for example, the broken tree trunks in the foreground, the path with a dangerously frail bridge and the spotlit chapel with ringing bells on the escarpment).








No comments:

Post a Comment

Please let me know your thoughts, advice about inaccuracies (including typos) and additional information that you would like to add to any post.