Giovanni Cesare Testa’s etching, “The Prophecy of Basilides”, c1650, after Pietro Testa

Giovanni Cesare Testa (c1630–1655)—nephew and supposed pupil of Pietro Testa (1612–1650)

“The Prophecy of Basilides”, c1650, after Pietro Testa’s drawing study in the Rugby School of Art Museum (England) and painting in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. Note that Testa’s design also features in Gaspard Dughet’s (1615–1675) fresco executed in 1651 in San Martino ai Monti, Rome. Published in Rome by François Collignon (aka Louis François Collignon) (c1610–1687).

Regarding Pietro Testa’s pen and ink (with chalk) study, Elizabeth Cropper (1988), in her catalogue raisonné for Pietro Testa (Philadelphia Museum of Art), offers the interesting proposal by Ann Sutherland Harris that the drawing “might be an early falsification of a Testa drawing, made by someone familiar with the print and with such preparatory studies from the later 1640s”; nevertheless, Cropper advises that the “drawing is unquestionably by Testa …” (p. 238).

Etching on laid paper (with watermark) with small margins backed with a support sheet.

Size (sheet) 40.5 x 72.9 cm; (plate) 38.4 x 71 cm; (image borderline) 36.3 x 70.9 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: “Tito Imperatore andando all’imresa di Gerusalemme consultò Basilide figlio de Profeti, e Priore del Monte Carmelo per sapere l'evento della Guerra, quale le predisse la vitoria contro li hebrei, esprimendosi, che Iddio sdegnato contro di quelli, per la morte che havevano dato/ a Christo si doveva sodisfar la giustitia divina con fulminar dardi contro Gerusalemme […] Disegno di Pietro Testa, la cui pitura originale si conserva in S. Martino di Monti in Roma. […] Franc. Petrarcha de Vespasiano ex Suetio, et Tacito./ Pietro Testa delineavit […] R^mo. Pre Gnle de Carmelitani Gio. Ant^o. Filippini Romano. […] D.D.D. Franc.^cus Collignon […] Gio. Cesare Testa Sculpsit”.

State i (of i)

Cropper 111 (Elizabeth Cropper 1988, “Pietro Testa 1612–1650: Prints and Drawings”, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, pp. 240–41, cat. no. 111); Nagler 7.

Cropper (1988) offers the following explanation of the portrayed scene: “The Emperor Titus, as he was going to take Jerusalem, consulted Basilides, the son of Prophets and the prior of Mount Carmel, to learn the outcome of the war; Basilides predicted that he would be victorious over the Hebrews, explaining that God was angry with them for having killed Christ, and that divine justice had to be satisfied by the fulmination of arrows against Jerusalem” (pp. 240–41).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “The prophecy of Basilides; the priest on Mount Carmel devines the fate of the Roman Emperor Titus at the left, while Justice points to a vision of the dead Christ at the right. c.1650-55/ Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1870-0514-1324).

Condition: an excellent impression with a small margin around the platemark and laid onto a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is age-toned with spot stains and restored tears. There are ink remarks by an old hand in the margins and a flattened centrefold.

I am selling this very large and exceptionally rare etching of great beauty and pictorial complexity showing the prophet, Basilides, kneeling at an altar in front of the personification of Justice who points to a vision of Christ’s body supported by angels while God draws an arrow from a quiver held by an angel, for AU$632 (currently US$440.61/EUR420.92/GBP360.67 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 important and grand scale etching, 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 

Jacques Chéreau’s etching, “Landscape with Fishermen,” c1700, after Gaspard Dughet

Jacques Chéreau (aka Chéreau le jeune) (1688–1776)

“Landscape with Fishermen,” c1700, after the painting by Gaspard Dughet (aka Gaspard Poussin; Gaspar Poussin; Le Guaspre; Gasparo Duche; Gaspre) (1615–1675) in the Hessen Kassel Museum (http://altemeister.museum-kassel.de/32675/), published by Jacques Chéreau in Paris.

Etching on laid paper, trimmed around the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 25.3 x 36.1 cm.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print from an early state before the addition of the artist/publisher’s name and address (“AParis chez Jacques Chereau, Rue St. Jacques, au grand St. Remy”):

“River landscape with two men pulling nets on the right, and man fishing with a rod in the middle” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1877-0811-722).

Condition: richly inked, strong early/lifetime impression (based on the quality of line showing no sign of wear to the printing plate), trimmed around the image borderline and laid onto a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The lower-right corner has been replenished with watercolour (an almost invisible restoration).

I am selling this startlingly strong etching after one of the leading 17^th century landscape painters, Gaspard Dughet (aka Gaspar Poussin)—an artist whose work was less idealised than that of his teacher, Nicholas Poussin—for AU$194 (currently US$138.91/EUR117.28/GBP105.92 at the time of posting this print) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 very beautiful landscape etching glowing with tonal contrasts, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

 

Jan Gottlieb Glauber’s etching, “A Tree Struck by Lightning”, after Gaspard Dughet, c.1685

Jan Gottlieb Glauber (aka Johannes Gottlieb Glauber; Myrtill) (1656–1703)

“A Tree Struck by Lightning” (BM title) or “Landscape with a Tree Broken by a Strong Wind” (TIB title), c.1685, after Gaspard Dughet (1615–75). (Note: Dughet is often called Gaspard Poussin as he is Nicholas Poussin’s brother-in-law and was very close to Nicholas.)

Etching on laid paper, trimmed along or slightly within the platemark.

Size: (sheet) 29 x 39.3 cm: (image borderline) 28.3 x 38.6 cm

Inscribed in the plate at the lower-right corner (hardly discernible): "Gaspar Poussin Pinxit Romae / J. G. G. f."

State iii (of iii) A copy of the second state before the added cross-hatching in the sky is available at: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/three-shepherds-in-a-storm-johannes-gottlieb-glauber-johannes-gottlieb-glauber.html

TIB 7 (5). 2 (399) (Walter L Strauss & Otto Naumann [Eds.] 1978, “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 7, p. 222); Bartsch V.399.2; Hollstein 2.III; Weigel 1843 315.2 (state not described); Weigel 1838 7275

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Landscape with two shepherds and a shepherdess with a dog and a herd of cattle in the lower right corner, their clothes blowing in the wind, a tree struck by lightning to the left, wind-swept trees to the left, a town and mountains in the background; soiled plate-edges; added cross-etchings in the sky and in the foreground. Etching” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1668551&partId=1&searchText=glauber+shepherds+in+a+storm&page=1)

Condition: rich and crisp impression trimmed along the platemark with the centre fold (as published?). The sheet is in good condition with light age toning and a small tear (about 1 cm) on the lower edge. There are traces of mounting (verso).  

I am selling this beautiful and rare etching for the total cost of AU$244 (currently US$182.67/EUR167.85/GBP141.13 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this highly sought after print, 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 usual way of looking at prints by Glauber is to admire the way that he gives his images the sparkle of light. This scene may have been created to show effects of a storm with regard to the fallen tree in the foreground which the British Museum describes as having been struck by lightning or the Bartsch’s catalogue raisonné advises is “broken by a strong wind”, but, for me, the real attraction in this landscape is the glowing light that bathes the scene. Note, for instance, that Gauber has employed cross-hatching where the lines almost intersect at ninety degrees and it is this extreme contrast of angles that gives the scene its luminosity. 

Glauber’s approach is unusual for the time in which the print was executed as the angle of cross-hatching was more commonly applied at close angles—so close, in fact, that moiré effects often occurred. Indeed, the effect of the line work is similar to the broken strokes of the Impressionists. For example, if I may draw attention to the treatment of light and shade rendering the bent tree on the right with a patch of light illuminating the bend in its truck, I find great interest in the way that Glauber codifies his strokes so that light is represented with vertical strokes while shadow is represented with horizontal strokes. I find details like this fascinating and wish that a scholarly article would be written about Glauber that addresses his currently hidden importance as an artist of light.