Étienne Delaune’s engraving of “The Virtues: Hope”, 1576

Étienne Delaune (aka Stephanus) (c.1518–83)

“The virtues: Hope”, 1576, from a series described by The Metropolitan Museum of Art as “oval prints with two theological virtues and the four cardinal virtues, represented by women standing on landscapes …” (http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/751439)

Engraving on laid paper trimmed to the oval image borderline.

Size: (oval sheet) 7.3 x 5.2 cm

Inscribed: (upper left) "SPES"; (left) "STEPHANVS / IN. F"; (lower left) "S F". (Note: Étienne Delaune signs his prints either as “Stephanus”—as shown here—or as “S. Goldsmith”)

Pollet 1995, 371 (Christophe Pollet 1995, “Les gravures d'ED”, 2 vols); Robert-Dumesnil 157a (A P F Robert-Dumesnil 1835, “Le Peintre-Graveur Français”, 11 vols.)

Condition: crisp and faultless impression trimmed to the image borderline. The back of the sheet shows a closed small tear (not visible recto), thin spots and a mounting hinge.

I am selling this small and very beautiful engraving executed in exceptionally fine detail for [deleted] at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this small masterpiece, 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 Metropolitan Museum of Art offers the following description of this print:

“This print represents Hope, wearing a draped dress, one hand on her chest and the other lifted at her side, her eyes looking to the sky, and a halo around her head. Behind her is a medieval town, its people and a group of soldiers gathered around a fire on which naked women are burning, an angel among them.” (http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/751439) 

This description is fine in terms of what can be seen in this tiny engraving, but as an explanation of what is portrayed it is a tad wrong and the following account may be closer to the truth.

The scene depicted has a biblical origin dating to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The folk being burned in a furnace are not “naked women” as the Met proposes, but rather the three Jewish men—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who refused to worship a golden idol when ordered by Nebuchadnezzar and were cast into “a fiery furnace” as punishment. Fortunately for the men, an angel protected them during their ghastly ordeal and they later emerged unscathed from the flames “without even the smell of smoke” (see chapter 3, “Book of Daniel”). Interestingly, Nebuchadnezzar was impressed with their faith and “promoted them to high office, decreeing that anyone who spoke against their God should be torn limb from limb” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadrach,_Meshach,_and_Abednego). 

Altdorfer and Burgkmair's woodblock prints of the luggage train from “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, c.1517

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538) and Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473 - 1531)

Five giant woodblock print panels from the frieze of 139 plates extending to around 54 meters in length titled showing the rare baggage scenes of a landsquenet's army (i.e. German foot soldiers), “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, c.1517

Upper Left: “Baggage with the two horsemen”, c.1517

Middle Left: “Baggage with flag waver”, c.1517

Lower left: “Baggage before a church”, c.1517

Upper Right: “Baggage carriage”, c.1517

Lower Right: “End of the baggage with the sutler carriage”, c.1517

Wikipedia offers the following explanation of the “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I” series of prints:

“… it one of the largest prints ever produced. It was designed to be pasted to the walls in city halls or the palaces of princes to create a decorative frieze, an expression of the Emperor's power and magnificence: a pictorial form of the contemporaneous royal entry, which like many Renaissance entries looked back to the Roman triumph. Maximilian's papers show that he intended the procession to ‘grace the walls of council chambers and great halls of the empire, proclaiming for posterity the noble aims of their erstwhile ruler’. It was one of several works of propaganda in literary and print form commissioned by Maximilian, who was always drastically short of money, and lacked the funds to actually stage such a ceremony, unlike his Habsburg descendants.”

“A first edition of 137 blocks running to 200 copies was published in 1526, on the order of Maximilian's grandson Archduke Ferdinand. A second edition of 135 blocks was printed in 1777, with further editions published by Adam Bartsch and then in 1883-4 by Franz Schestag.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumphal_Procession)

These prints have been sold

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538)

“Baggage with the two horsemen”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “111” at the upper right corner (that has been hand corrected to “127”).

Size: (sheet) 41.7 x 57.5 cm.

Dodgson 36 (Campbell Dodgson1903, “Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM”, 2 vols, London, British Museum Trustees); Hollstein 552-618 (F W H Hollstein 1954, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam); Schestag 127; Winzinger 78

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538)

“Baggage with flag waver”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “125” at the upper right corner.

Size: (sheet) 41.7 x 57.6 cm.

Dodgson 34 (Campbell Dodgson1903, “Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM”, 2 vols, London, British Museum Trustees); Hollstein 552-618 (F W H Hollstein 1954, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam); Schestag 125; Winzinger 79

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538)

“Baggage before a church”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “129” at the upper right corner.

Size: (sheet) 41.7 x 57.5 cm.

Dodgson 38 (Campbell Dodgson1903, “Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM”, 2 vols, London, British Museum Trustees); Hollstein 552-618 (F W H Hollstein 1954, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam); Schestag 129; Winzinger 80

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538)

“Baggage carriage”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “110” at the upper right corner (that has been hand corrected to “126”).

Size: (sheet) 41.5 x 57.7 cm.

Dodgson 35 (Campbell Dodgson1903, “Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM”, 2 vols, London, British Museum Trustees); Hollstein 552-618 (F W H Hollstein 1954, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam); Schestag 126; Winzinger 77

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538)

“Baggage carriage”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “110” at the upper right corner (that has been hand corrected to “126”).

Size: (sheet) 41.5 x 57.7 cm.

Dodgson 35 (Campbell Dodgson1903, “Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM”, 2 vols, London, British Museum Trustees); Hollstein 552-618 (F W H Hollstein 1954, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam); Schestag 126; Winzinger 77

Altdorfer and Burgkmair's woodblock prints from “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, c.1517

Albrecht Altdorfer (1482/5–1538) and Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473 - 1531)

Four giant woodblock print panels from the frieze of 139 plates extending to around 54 meters in length titled, “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, c.1517

Upper Left: “Knights bearing the banners of Bethune, Franeker und Dendremonde”, c.1517

Lower Left: “Knights bearing the banners of Achalm, Echingen und Ortenburg”, c.1517

Upper Right: “Knights bearing the banners of Auxerrois, Maconais and Charolais”, c.1517

Lower Right: “Knights bearing the banners of Säckingen, Hohenberg and Nellenburg”, c.1517

The British Museum has another print of Standard Bearers from the same series; see http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1535171&partId=1&searchText=Burgkmair&page=2; see also  http://www.kulturpool.at/plugins/kulturpool/showitem.action?itemId=4295793433&kupoContext=default

Condition: superb 18th century impressions (Bartsch edition) with large margins. Each sheet is in excellent condition for its age but there are a few minor spots, handling marks and kinks to the edges.

The Victoria and Albert Museum offers the following very interesting information about the “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I” plates:

… “This was one of three large-scale mural projects which together reflected Emperor Maximilian I's (1459-1519) status as Holy Roman Emperor and linked him symbolically with ancient Rome. The project was not finished by the time of Maximilian's death but the set was published later, in 1526.

Hans Burgkmair designed much of the procession, begun in about 1512, with contributions from Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Springinklee, Hans Beck and Hans Scheufelein. The designs were cut by Jost de Negker's large team of block-cutters.

The two other mural projects include a large Triumphal Arch, about 12 feet high by 10 feet wide and made up of 192 blocks, and a Triumphal Carriage about 8 feet long made up of 8 blocks. These were designed by Albrecht Dürer, with assistance from Hans Springinklee, Wolf Traut and Albrecht Altdorfer.

The procession was not intended for sale. The city of Nuremberg apologised to the Emperor for some impressions from the blocks having been sold. The friezes were intended as gifts for wall display. According to surviving correspondence, Maximilian wanted the procession to 'grace the walls of council chambers and great halls of the empire, proclaiming for posterity the noble aims of their erstwhile ruler'.” (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O972804/triumph-of-the-emperor-maximilian-woodcut-maximilian-i-holy/) 

These prints have been sold

“Knights bearing the banners of Bethune, Franeker und Dendremonde”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “87” at the upper right corner (that has been hand corrected to “88”).

Size: (sheet) 42.5 x 60.5 cm

Dodgson 32 (Campbell Dodgson1903, “Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts in the BM”, 2 vols, London, British Museum Trustees); Hollstein 552-618 (F W H Hollstein 1954, “German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700”, Amsterdam); Schestag 88

“Knights bearing the banners of Achalm, Echingen und Ortenburg”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “64” at the upper right corner

Size: (sheet) 42 x 60.5 cm

Dodgson 8; Hollstein 552-618; Schestag 64

“Knights bearing the banners of Auxerrois, Maconais and Charolais”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “84” at the upper right corner (that has been hand corrected to “85”).

Size: (sheet) 42 x 60 cm

Dodgson 29; Hollstein 552-618; Schestag 85

“Knights bearing the banners of Säckingen, Hohenberg and Nellenburg”, c.1517, from the series “Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I”, published by Adam Bartsch (1757–1821)

Original giant woodcut on early laid paper with large margins as published and numbered “62” at the upper right corner.

Size: (sheet) 42.5 x 60 cm

Dodgson 6; Hollstein 552-618; Schestag 62

Jacques Callot’s etching, “The Ponte Vecchio in Florence”, c.1621

Jacques Callot (1592– 1635)

“The Ponte Vecchio in Florence”, c.1621, from the series of fifty plates, “Capricci di varie figure di Iacopo Callot—The Nancy set”

Etching on fine laid paper with margins lined onto a conservator’s support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 10.3 x 12.8 cm; (plate) 6 x 8.4 cm; (image borderline) 5.5 x 8 cm

Meaume 1860 781.I (Meaume, Édouard 1860, “Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Jacques Callot”, 2 volumes, Paris); Lieure 1927 434.I (Lieure, J, 1927. “Jacques Callot”, 3 vols, Paris, Editions de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Side view of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, with men bathing in the river; reclining nude figure in the foreground, on the left c.1621 Etching”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1563730&partId=1&searchText=callot+ponte+vecchio&people=130293&page=1)

Condition: crisp impression from a slightly worn plate (?) with a printer’s mark on the lower left edge, generous margins (approx. 2 cm). The very fine sheet of laid paper is in excellent condition and lined onto a conservator’s support of washi paper.

I am selling this VERY small etching, with all the careful attention to making swelling lines that made Callot famous, for AU$210 (currently US$157.90/EUR146.90/GBP123.29 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this small miracle of etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Interestingly, there are two marginally different versions of this very small plate that are both executed by Callot: c.1617 and c.1621. This impression is from the later (c.1621) version and a copy of the earlier (c.1617) version is available to be seen at the British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1556566&partId=1&searchText=callot+ponte+vecchio&people=130293&page=1.

Although the differences between the two plates may seem at a cursory glance somewhat trivial (for instance there is more detail to be seen in the distance shown under the arch of the bridge in the first version and the dark toning of the sky is more refined/less bumpy in the second version) the changes that Callot made do affect the meaning expressed. From my standpoint, the c.1617 version presents the view of the bridge—the Ponte Vecchio—as a closely observed representation of its structure with an earthy show of naked chaps frolicking in the water below it. By contrast, the c.1621 version shown here, presents the scene bathed in light and air. The chaps are still "doing their thing" in the Arno, but the mood is no longer about the everyday world of the here and now. What I see expressed is a more sublime and spiritual feeling of quiet liberation captured by the reclining nude on the lower left corner.

Jan Luyken’s engraved biblical illustration of darkness from “Exodus” 10:22–23

Jan (Johannes) Luyken (1649–1712)

“Moses lifts his hand to Heaven …” (Moses syn hand na den Hemel uit strekkende, vald een Dikke Duysternis van drie dagen, over gands Egipten-land; maar daar is Ligt in alle de woningen Israels), 1770, published by Willem and David Goeree in “Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke” (Mosaical History of the Hebrew Church)

The illustration is for the text from “Exodus” 10:22–23

“22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

(King James Version)

Engraving on fine laid paper with full margins as published and lined onto a conservator’s support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 33.4 x 40 cm; (plate) 28.7 x 36.7 cm; (image borderline) 27.5 x 36 cm

Inscribed above the image borderline: (right) “3 Deel p.166.”

Lettered below the image borderline: “Moses syn hand na den Hemel uit strekkende, vald een Dikke Duysternis van drie dagen, over gands Egipten-land; maar daar is Ligt in alle de woningen Israels. Exod. 10:22.23.”

Eeghen 2602 24 (Pieter van Eeghen 1905, “Het werk van Jan en Casper Luyken”, F. Muller & Co., Amsterdam, p. 485 (online: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125001866108)

Condition: richly inked, crisp impression with full margins as published. The sheet is professionally conserved with the published centrefold professionally flattened on a fine archival support sheet. The sheet is in superb condition for its age (i.e. there is no stains, tears, holes, abrasions or foxing).

I am selling this large (double page) original engraving from 1770 by Jan Luyken for a total cost of AU$136 (currently US$102.24/EUR95.40/GBP79.70 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this rare image of a night time scene, 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

Although this is an illustration showing “a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt” (Exodus 10:22 [KJV]) I wonder if there wasn’t more than biblical calamities in the mind of Jan Luyken when he engraved the scene. The reason I raise this question is that for the previous fifty or so years before he made the engraving, the Netherlands had suffered its own dreadful natural calamities and plague-like infestations. For instance, according to Adam D. Sundberg, in his PhD thesis (2015), “Floods, Worms, and Cattle Plague: Nature-induced Disaster at the Closing of the Dutch Golden Age, 1672-1764”, there was “a massive coastal flood in 1717 that devastated communities across the North Sea coastal region, an infestation of invasive mollusks (shipworms) into the wooden components of sea dikes in the 1730s, and two outbreaks of cattle plague (1713-20; 1744-1764) that decimated herds in the Netherlands and across Europe.” Of course, what happens around an artist may not impinge upon the artist’s mindset but I have yet to meet an artist where this is true.

Aside from personal motivations driving Luyken to portray this scene in his special way, such a dark landscape is a very rare image in art history. Usually when artists represent darkness they rely on juxtaposed contrasts of extreme light and dark tones to make the shadow areas appear intensely dark. Here, the upper-left corner of the composition applies this device of strong tonal contrast—note in particular the strong contrast of the silhouette shape of the corner or a building on the far left side with the sunlight behind it—but the remainder of the composition relies on tiny specks of light to enliven the darkness.

Stefano della Bella’s etching of a leopard, c.1641

Stefano della Bella (1610–64)

“Plate 9: Leopard”, c.1641, from the series, “Diversi Animali” (various animals), published by Pierre Mariette (1603–57)

Etching on fine laid paper trimmed along the platemark.

Size: (sheet) 8.6 x 10.9 cm

State iii (of iii [De Vesme])

Lettered on the lower edge: (left) “9 Stef. della Bella fecit; (centre right) “Cum privilegio”  

De Vesme/Massar 112.698.iii; Talbierska 54.9.iv (Alexandre de Vesme, Phyllis D. Massar 1971, “Stefano della Bella. Catalogue Raisonné”. New York); “Stefano della Bella: Etchings from the Collection of the Print Room of the Warsaw University Library”. Warsaw, 2001, cat. no. 54.9.iv.; see also the description of this print at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/377291) and at Harvard Museums (http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/244659).

Condition: crisp and well-printed impression, trimmed along the platemark. The sheet is in near pristine condition apart from a faint dot stain near the leopard’s front left foot.

I am selling this etching by one of the famous old master printmakers of an exceptionally cute leopard with a tail that even a chimpanzee would be proud for AU$152 (currently US$114.80/EUR107.77/GBP91.17 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

I wish that I knew a lot more about leopards so that I could speak with authority about this remarkably cute looking leopard, but, as I’m not, I will simply write down my thoughts as an internal discussion to myself and leave any inaccuracies for more learned folk to correct.

Let me begin with this man-eater’s tail. Mindful that when Stefano della Bella executed this etching in the early 1600s, leopards were not lurking around every corner of Florence to be observed. Consequently, the length of the tail and its spiralling curl may have been more fantasy than fact. Based upon personal observations of leopards, a “real” leopard’s tail can only reach the beast’s front shoulder fully stretched whereas this leopard’s tail could tickle the man-eater’s chin. Regarding its curliness, I am not certain if leopard’s tails have the musculature to achieve the almost prehensile curl as depicted. Nevertheless, I imagine that the tail serves to balance the animal’s weight when it moves and helps in body-language communication with other leopards. With regard to body language, this curly tail certainly does “talk” about the spirit of inner alertness of this predator on the move.

Beyond the lovely tail, I find my eye looking at the leopard’s face with its inscrutable Mona Lisa expression. To be honest, I’m not sure if della Bella planned for this chap to look forlorn, skittish or menacing. My reading of forlorn is driven by the cat’s downcast whiskers and the (arguably) downcast expression of its mouth. My reading of skittishness is all about this cat’s sideway glaze as it looks towards the viewer but moves in a different direction. Although I proposed that the animal may look menacing, I don’t really believe this. My memory of menacing animals is that they have their whiskers protruding out and their heads lowered and this cat isn’t exhibiting either of these signs.

I would love to analyse the dot patterning that della Bella has employed to determine whether it is fact or fiction, but the details are too indistinct and so I will side-step this usually important issue in depicting leopards.

There is another very important issue that I will end this discussion on and it concerns the placement of the leopard’s feet. Here, I believe della Bella has a problem. From my understanding of animal movement, if both feet on the right side of a leopard were to move forward—as shown here—and both feet on the left side move backwards the leopard would be unable to take another step. In short leopards don’t move in this fashion. Instead, the two feet diagonally opposed move forward while the other diagonally paired feet take the weight.