Johann Lorenz Haid’s mezzotint, “Man with a Magnifying Glass”, c1740, after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta

Johann Lorenz Haid (1702–1750)

“Man with a Maynifying Glass” (descriptive title only), c1740, after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (aka Giambattista Piazzetta) (1682–1754), published by Johann Christian Leopold (1699–1755) in Augsburg.

Mezzotint on laid paper (with watermark), trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline and writing edge.

Size: (sheet) 38.9 x 27.5 cm; (image borderline) 37.4 x 26.9 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Iohann Baptista Piazzetta/ Venetus delineavit”; (left of centre) “Lorenz Haid/ sculpsit”; (centre) “Cum Gratia et Privilegio Sacræ Caesareae/ Majestatis”; (right) “Iohann Christian Leopold excudit/ Augustæ Vindelicorum”

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression, trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline and writing edge. The sheet has minor handling fractures, marks and creases to the edges, otherwise the sheet is in excellent condition for its considerable age with no significant tears, holes, stains or foxing,

I am selling this spectacular mezzotint showing a man wearing a feathered hat examining the viewer with a magnifying glass—I would like to call it a loupe but as the device has a handle I feel obliged to call it a magnifying glass—for the total cost of AU$445 (currently US$328.78/EUR276/GBP235.51 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 marvellous example of how a print can excite a reflexive response in viewers, 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

Jan Sadeler I’s engraving, “The Calling of Abraham”, 1575–1600

Jan Sadeler I (aka Johannes Sadeler; Johann Sadeler) (1550–1600)

“The Calling of Abraham”, 1575–1600, after a painting by Jacopo Bassano (aka Giacomo Bassano; Jacopo da Ponte) (c1510/18–1592) that was in the Giusti collection in Verona at the end of the sixteenth century but is now lost (see TIB 7001.052), published by Jan Sadeler I with imperial court privilege (as noted on plate).

Engraving on fine laid paper with small margings and backed on a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 22.1 x 277; (plate) 21.5 x 26.4 cm; (image borderline) 20 x 26.4 cm

Inscribed within the image borderline: (centre of upper edge) "GENES XII”; (inverted text emerging from cloud at upper centre) “Egredere de terra tua”; (centre of lower edge) “Cũ priuilegio/ Sac:Cæs. M.”

Lettered on plate below the image borderline: (two-line dedication to Augustinus de Justis) "IN GRATIAM PERILLVSTRIS COMITIS AVGVSTINI DE IVSTIS, PINXIT IACOBVS DE PONTO BASSAN,/ VERONAE"/ Scalpsit autem Joann. Sadeler Belg."

Lifetime impression (based on the crisp quality of the line showing no sign of wear to the printing plate) of the only state.

TIB 1999 7001.052 (Isabelle de Ramaix 1999, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Johan Sadeler l”, vol 70, part 1 (Supplement), Abaris Books, Norwalk, p. 76); Hollstein 53

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“The Calling of Abraham. Landscape with a couple making cheese (?) in lower right, their animals beyond, a shepherd resting at the foot of a tree at left, Abraham as a shepherd in background and being addressed by the words 'Egredere de terra tua' emerging from a cloud; after Jacopo Bassano”

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3146681&partId=1&searchText=sadeler%2c+bassano&view=list&page=1)

See also the description of this print at the Rijksmuseum:

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.406590

Condition: crisp, near faultless impression trimmed with small margins and backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in excellent/museum-quality condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, significant stains or foxing).

I am selling this exceptionally rare masterpiece of engraving by one of the greatest of the old master printmakers for the total cost of AU$347 (currently US$254.88/EUR217.88/GBP197.71 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this breathtakingly fine 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

There are so many interesting elements to this composition such as the portrayed activity of making cheese on the right with what seems to be a small whiskered dog wishing to participate in the production shown with its head sniffing at the ripe smells coming from the curds in the pot—my apologies if curds (or whatever is in the pot) don’t have an odour but I need to establish in my head what this curious looking dog is interested in.

My attention, however, is not so much on what is depicted in the scene: it’s on the line of text emanating from heaven … or at least from the light filled gap in the clouds. Again, my interest is not about the meaning of the words but rather that the words are upside down. If one thinks about this curious inversion the artist’s arrangement of God’s words to sleeping Abraham in the foreground to “Egredere de terra tua”—(transl.) "Get out of your” land, your relatives, and your father's home. Go to the land that I will show you (Genesis 12.1)—it all makes sense. God is speaking to Abraham from heaven and so the viewer needs to turn upside down to see/hear the words from God’s perspective. Sheer magic! From an historical standpoint this is not the first example of an artist seeking to engage a viewer in a reflexive response of turning upside down to be a part of a portrayed scene (see for example Jan van Eyck’s “Annunciation”, c1435), but they are rare nevertheless.

Engraving (with etching) by Abraham Blooteling and Pieter Stevens van Gunst, “Abdomen Posterior Wall with House Fly”, 1685

Abraham Blooteling (aka Abraham Bloteling; Abraham Blotelingh; Abraham Blootelingh) (1640–1690) and Pieter Stevens van Gunst (aka Pieter van Gunst) (1658/ 59–c1731)

“Abdomen Posterior Wall with House Fly”, 1685, after the drawing in the Ecole de Médicine, Paris, by Gerard de Lairesse (1640/41–1711) as plate 52 in Govard Bidloo’s (1649–1713) famous anatomical atlas, “Anatomia humani corporis / Ontleding des menschelyken lichaams", first published by the widow (de Weduwe van Joannes van Someren) (fl. after 1679) of Johan van Someren (1622–1676) in 1685. This is impression is from the 1734 edition published by Jacob van Poolsum (1701–1762) in Utrecht.

Etching and engraving on cream laid paper (2.5 cm chain-lines) with margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 50.4 x 34.6 cm; (plate) 47.5 x 32.1 cm

Numbered on plate at upper right corner: “T. 52” and indexed with letters from “A” to “P”.

WorthPoint offers the following description of this print:

“Large house fly shown on the specimen. Abdomen, posterior wall, in situ. Viscera removed to show diaphragm, crus of diaphragm around divided aorta and esophagus [sic]. Vertebrae and psoas muscle shown.

The splendid anatomical work of Bidloo is considered one of the most beautiful ones ever printed. It became famous because of the very elegant and elaborate engraved tables after drawings by Gerard de Lairesse, carried out by Abraham Blooteling and Pieter Stevens van Gunst.”

(https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/abdomen-posterior-wall-house-fly-417303811)

Condition: faultless, crisp and well-printed impression with age-toning and minor marks appropriate to the age of the print otherwise it is in near perfect condition.

(Note that this extraordinary engraving has been listed previously, but I have washed it recently—with only water and no chemicals. The print is now in a superb condition.)

I am selling this large masterpiece of anatomical engraving with the trompe-l'œil hideous addition of a house fly to make the image truly unforgettable, for AU$485 (currently US$360.97/EUR311.05/GBP27170 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 extraordinary and technically magnificent print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This masterpiece of anatomical engraving has fascinated medical students for centuries. The reason is only in part because it is a marvellous illustration of the posterior wall of the abdomen with the viscera removed to show the diaphragm, divided aorta, oesophagus, vertebrae and psoas muscle. More fascinating than the objective and highly detailed rendering of the dissected cadaver, however, I suspect that what makes this print memorable is the reflexive reaction prompted upon seeing a fly licking its lips while perched on the surgical drape next to the dissection.

For me, the vacillating instinctive response of revulsion and fascination is not just because of the presence of a fly that may not have washed its feet, but also an uneasy feeling with seeing the contrast between the portrayed mechanical sheen of the dissection pins and the soft flesh that they hold in place. I want to avert my eyes but cannot. This really is a masterpiece of “brutal Dutch realism”—to borrow Clifford S Ackley’s description (1981) in the marvellous exhibition catalogue, “Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt” (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, p. 278).