(Attrib./Circle of) Jan Baptist Barbé’s engraving, “The Brazen Serpent”, c1648

(Attrib./Circle of) Jan Baptist Barbé (aka Giovanni Baptista Barbé; Johannes Berbe) (1578–1649)

Regarding the attribution of this engraving to Jan Baptist Barbé, compare this print with Barbé’s “Adoration of the Christ Child by the Three Kings” (1588–1648), from the same, or variant, series inscribed with Theodoor Galle (aka Theodor Galle; Dirck Galle) (1571–1633) as the publisher after the intermediary design by Pieter de Jode I (aka Petrus de Iode; Peeter de Jode; Pieter de Oude Jode) (1573–1634); see http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.74408. Compare also this print with Barbé’s “The Resurrection”, inscribed with Carel van Mallery (aka Charles de Mallery) (1571–1635?) as the publisher after the intermediary design by Maarten de Vos (aka Marten de Vos; Maerten de Vos) (1532–1603); see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1929-0715-32.

“The Brazen Serpent”, c1648, plate 4 in a series of 12 engravings, “The Sins and Penance of Man”, after the intermediary design by either Pieter de Jode I or Maarten de Vos (as discussed above), published in Paris by Pierre Mariette I (c1603–1657) in “L'agreable entretien des ames: sur 168 tableaux souscris de prieres, pour mediter les sts. misteres et pour regler nos vies et mœurs sur celles de n[ot]re sauueur Iesus Christ et de Ste. Marie sa mere, en disant le chapelet du rozaire” ([Google Transl.] “The pleasant interview of souls: on 168 tables subscribed to prayers, to meditate on the holy. misteres and to regulate our lives and mores on those of our savior Iesus Christ and of Ste. Marie his mother, saying the rosary of the rozaire”) (see: https://archive.org/details/lagreableentreti00mari/page/n7/mode/2up).

Engraving on laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 18.5 x 13.4 cm; (plate) 16.2 x 11.3 cm; (image borderline) 14.6 x 11.1 cm.

Inscribed in plate in cartouche: (upper left corner) “Fair un/ Serpent/ d'Airain/ et le mets/ pour signe/ Num. 21.” (Make a Brazen Serpent and put it as Num. 21.); (upper right corner) “Il a esté/ offert par/ ce que luy/ mesme la/ voulu./ Isa. 53.” (He was offered by whatever he wanted. Isa. 53.); (lower left corner) “Ta vie sera/ pendante/ deuant tes/ yeux./ Deut. 28.” (Your life will be hanging in your eyes. Deut. 28.); (lower right corner) “Celuy qui/ pend au/ bois est/ maudit./ Deut. 21.” (He who hangs on the wood is cursed. Deut. 21.).

Lettered and numbered in plate below the image borderline: “Comme Moyse a esleué le Serpent dans le desert, ainsi doit/ estre esleué de l’momme. Iean 3./ 4 P.Mariette excu”.

Condition: a strong, well-printed (near faultless) impression with a small margin in near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this very small and magnificently executed engraving Illustrating an episode from the Bible where Moses erects a bronze sculpture of a snake/serpent and advises his followers to gaze upon it so that they would not be harmed by the “fiery serpents” sent by God to bite those who were grumbling about the hardships that they were facing during their exodus from Egypt—my apologies if my version of the event is not quite right—for the total cost of AU$236 (currently US$174.18/EUR147.55/GBP126.67 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 almost perfectly preserved small gem of engraving from the early 1600s, 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

Carel van Mallery’s engraving, “The Roman Consul Attilius Regulus Fighting a Giant African Serpent”, c1596 (2nd copy)

Carel van Mallery (aka Charles de Mallery) (1571–1635?)

“The Roman Consul Attilius Regulus Fighting a Giant African Serpent” (aka “The Dragon Hunt”), c1596, from the series, “Hunting Parties” (aka “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium” (transl. “With wild beasts, birds, fish”), after Jan van der Straet (aka Joannes Stradanus; Ioannes Stradanus) (1523–1605), published by Philips Galle (1537–1612).

Note: the first edition of “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium” published by Galle comprised 43 unnumbered plates all engraved by Galle with a dedication page to Cosimo de Medici. After this edition the series was expanded to 104 plates engraved by A. Collaert, J. Collaert, C. Galle I and C. de Mallery with a dedication page to the jurist Henricus van Osthoorn en Sonnevelt (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1957-0413-37 and A. Baroni and M. Sellink, “Stradanus 1523-1605: Court artist of the Medici”, exh. cat. Groeningemuseum Brugge 2008–09, Turnhout, 2012, pp. 245–58, cat. nos. 32–49).

Engraving on fine laid paper with wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 27.7 x 34.8 cm; (plate) 20 x 26.4 cm; (image borderline) 18.5 x 26.1 cm.

Lettered within image borderline at lower edge: (left) “Phls Galle excud.”; (right of centre) “Joan. Stradanus invent. Car. de Mallery sculp.”

Lettered below the image borderline: (left) “43”; (centre) two lines of Latin text arranged in two columns) “Attilius consul Romanus...tandem superavit.'; (right) “XV”.

State: ii (with the added numerals, “43” and “XV”; see the BM’s impression of the first state: 1901,0611.43)

New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 480.II (Johannes Stradanus); Baroni Vannucci 1997 693.43 (Alessandra Baroni Vannucci 1997, “Jan van der Straet, detto Giovanni Stradano, flandrus pictor et inventor”, Milan, Jandi Sapi Editori)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“The Roman Consul Attilius Regulus Fighting a Giant African Serpent; the Consul and his army surround and attack the giant serpent, firing arrows from all directions” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1901-0611-43)

Condition: strong and well-printed with generous margins. Beyond remnants of mounting tape (verso), the sheet is in an excellent/museum quality condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, losses, significant stains or foxing.

Note that this is the second impression of this same print that I have listed, the previous copy has been sold.

I am selling this exceptionally rare, engraving from the late 1500s—note the interesting cannon-like devices in the background—for a total cost of AU$307 (currently US$222.95/EUR187.68/GBP169.55 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 ultimate fantasy from the 16^th century of hunting a dragon, 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

Carel van Mallery’s engraving, “The Killing of Giant Indian Watersnakes Using Fire”, c1596

Carel van Mallery (aka Charles de Mallery) (1571–1635?)

“The Killing of Giant Indian Watersnakes Using Fire”, c1596, after Jan van der Straet (aka Johannes Stradanus; Giovanni della Strada; Jan van der Straeten; Giovanni Statenensis; Giovanni Stradano; Joannes Stradanus) (1523–1605), plate 44 from the second edition (in the first edition this plate was numbered “16”) from the series of 104 plates dedicated to the jurist, Henricus van Osthoorn en Sonnevelt, “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium” (with wild beasts, birds, fish), published by Philips Galle (1537–1612) in Antwerp.

Engraving on laid paper trimmed along the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 20.2 x 26.2 cm

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (on lower flame left of centre) “'I. Stradanus inv. / C. de Mallery sculp. / Phls Galle exc.”

Numbered on plate below the image borderline: (left corner) “44.”

Lettered on plate in two lines of Latin text in two below the image borderline: “Ingentem vegeto Serpentem corpore gignit / India, qui solitus latitare in aquis, fame pressus // Prodit, et vmbrosa dependens arbore, saltu / Apprendit pecus: ast clauis flammaq[ue] necatur.”

State ii? (of iv) (Note: my attribution of this impression to the second state is based on the first state impression held by the Rijksmuseum [RP-P-OB-31.574] has the plate number, “16”, and this impression with number, “44”, matches the second state reproduced in Alessandra Baroni & Manfred Sellink 2012, “Stradanus 1523–1605: Court Artist of the Medici”, Brepols, Turnhout, p. 251. Nevertheless, the impression may be from a later state as the numbers, “XVI”, that should be on the lower right corner in the margin are either erased or have been trimmed off. I do not have information about the attributes of states iii and iv.)

New Hollstein Dutch 481; Baroni Vannucci 1997 693.44 (Alessandra Baroni Vannucci 1997, “Jan van der Straet, detto Giovanni Stradano, flandrus pictor et inventor”, Milan, Jandi Sapi Editori)

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print:

(transl.) “Several Indian water snakes are chased out of the bush by fire. Then they are beaten to death with a club. The print has a Latin caption and is part of a series about hunting scenes.”

(http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.97362)

See also the description of the print in its first state at the British Museum:

“The Killing of Giant Indian Watersnakes Using Fire; in the foreground, to left, giant Indian snakes burn in a pile of vegetation; behind a group of men feed the flames with torches and attack the snakes with clubs; in the distance, at the upper right, a snake catches sight of two goats from the branch of a tree; beyond, another snake swallows a goat”

(https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1620352&partId=1&searchText=Ingentem&page=1)

Condition: Well-inked and well-printed, crisp impression with a printer’s crease (i.e. a crease occurring during the printing process that creates a white “unprinted line”) at the centre top. The sheet is in very good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, stains or foxing) trimmed along the image borderline and backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this exceptionally rare, engraving from the late 1500s for a total cost of AU$277 (currently US$204.93/EUR175.84/GBP156.27 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 curious image of “giant Indian watersnakes” hunting cattle while being hunted with fire, 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

I admit that I do not know much about the dragon-like beasts that the title of this marvellously animated engraving advises me are “giant Indian watersnakes.” To be very honest I should put my hand up and state that I know nothing about them beyond noticing that they have clearly strayed a long way from their water habitat.

What I do know, however, is that this composition is a remarkably clever graphic representation of the snakes, foliage and fire pictorially woven together. I especially love the treatment of the clouds of smoke cast up from the large tongues of flame as the concentric rings of lines representing the smoke connote an appropriate idea of transparency and ambiguity of form to the smoke-cloud mass. Note also the way that the tree seen in front of the attacking men wielding their flaming touches and lethally lumpy clubs pictorially “interrupts” our view of what they are doing and how this interruption helps to create the illusion of animation.

Carel van Mallery’s engraving, “The Roman Consul Attilius Regulus Fighting a Giant African Serpent”, 1596

Carel van Mallery (aka Charles de Mallery) (1571–1635?)

“The Roman Consul Attilius Regulus Fighting a Giant African Serpent” (aka “The Dragon Hunt”), 1596 (or a little later), from the series, “Hunting Parties” (aka “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium” (transl. “With wild beasts, birds, fish”), after Jan van der Straet (aka Joannes Stradanus; Ioannes Stradanus) (1523–1605), published by Philips Galle (1537–1612).

Note: the first edition of “Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium” published by Galle comprised 43 unnumbered plates all engraved by Galle with a dedication page to Cosimo de Medici. After this edition the series was expanded to 104 plates engraved by A. Collaert, J. Collaert, C. Galle I and C. de Mallery with a dedication page to the jurist Henricus van Osthoorn en Sonnevelt (see http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1619537&partId=1&people=93957&peoA=93957-2-70&page=1  and A. Baroni and M. Sellink, “Stradanus 1523-1605: Court artist of the Medici”, exh. cat. Groeningemuseum Brugge 2008–09, Turnhout, 2012, pp. 245–58, cat. nos. 32–49).

Engraving on laid paper with margins

Size: (sheet) 23.9 x 29.6 cm; (plate) 20 x 26.6 cm; (image borderline) 18.4 x 26.2 cm

Lettered within image borderline at lower edge: (left) “'Phls Galle excud.”; (right of centre) “Joan. Stradanus invent. Car. de Mallery sculp.”

Lettered below the image borderline: (left) “43”; (centre) two lines of Latin text arranged in two columns) “Attilius consul Romanus...tandem superavit.'; (right) “XV”.

State: ii (with the added numerals, “43” and “XV”; see the BM’s impression of the first state: 1901,0611.43)

New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 480.II (Johannes Stradanus); Baroni Vannucci 1997 693.43 (Alessandra Baroni Vannucci 1997, “Jan van der Straet, detto Giovanni Stradano, flandrus pictor et inventor”, Milan, Jandi Sapi Editori)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Plate 15, The Roman Consul Attilius Regulus Fighting a Giant African Serpent; the Consul and his army surround and attack the giant serpent, firing arrows from all directions” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1620262&partId=1&people=106252&peoA=106252-2-23&page=3)

Condition: crisp impression but with small abrasions (so small that they are almost invisible) and generous margins (approximately 1.5 cm). The sheet is in marvellous condition with only a few faint stains.

I am selling this exceptionally rare, engraving from the late 1500s for a total cost of [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this ultimate fantasy from the 16^th century of hunting a dragon, 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

The idea of slaying dragons is no doubt a dream mission in life for every noble knight. Certainly there is a long history of artists who have portrayed knights vanquishing them, especially the brutish dragon lanced by St George (see for example the paintings of this critter and its demise by Paolo Uccello, Vittore Carpaccio, Raphael, Edward Burne-Jones and Gustave Moreau).

What makes this version of a dragon hunt interesting for me is in part that this is not just any dragon. This is a giant African serpent/dragon—information helpfully supplied by the Latin inscription on the print. Central to my love of this dragon, however, is its forked tongue. More specifically, my eye is riveted to the tongue’s bent tip that is almost a match for the end of the arrow piecing through the dragon’s jaw from behind. Another fascinating feature captured in this representation of a dragon is the curiously ambiguous treatment of a distant tree in the shape of a spiky ball that I read as a fiery snort of dragon’s breath at the tip of its nose.

Unlike most other illustrations of chaps slaying dragons, I should also point out that this image is rare in that it is one of the few compositions where the viewer is psychologically protected from the menacing dragon’s writhing tail and gnashing jaws—I was going to write “teeth” until I realised that this dragon has teeth only on one side of its upper jaw—by a barrier of soldiers. This may seem like a somewhat minor compositional feature, but it is surprisingly very seldom employed in scenes with dragons.