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LIFE; LOVE; DEATH
Variations on these themes in a selection of prints from c1495 – 2021
Having published a catalogue in 2019 which marked the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt,
it seemed natural to follow up this year with a celebration of Dürer in the 550th anniversary year of his birth.
It also coincides with the National Gallery’s new exhibition Dürer’s Journeys – Travels of a Renaissance Artist,
an extension of the Aachen exhibition Dürer war Hier. Eine Reise wird Legende (Dürer was Here. A journey becomes a Legend)
earlier in the year; both exhibitions having been postponed over a year or so because of Covid.
A third major show in this ‘fest’ of Dürer exhibitions, Albrecht Dürer, at the Albertina in Vienna, did take place at the end of 2019 just before the Covid lockdowns.
The pandemic both focussed minds and gave time generally to reflect on such universal themes as life and death .
The all-embracing title of my catalogue, further ‘allows’ for the additional inclusion of a large variety of works by other printmakers too, as can be seen in the list to the right.
These include quite a number by Modern British women artists, which will soon feature as a web exhibition.
ALBRECHT DURER
Nuremberg 1471 – 1528 Nuremberg
The Descent from the Cross
Illustrated Bartsch 42; Hollstein 150 c/c 129 x 98 mm
Woodcut, 1511, for the Small Passion.
The block signed with the monogram on a tablet.
Joseph of Arimathaea lifting Christ down, Nicodemus holding ready the burial cloth.
The instruments of the Passion, the two nails extracted from Christ’s hands and hammer,
on the ground; the Crown of Thorns hanging on the arm of the cross.
ALBRECHT ALTDORFER
Amberg ? c.1482/85 – 1538 Regensberg
Madonna and Child with St Anne at the Cradle
Bartsch 14; Hollstein 15, 66 x 57 mm (sheet), Original engraving.
The plate signed with the monogram on the end of the cradle.
Ex collection Friedrich August of Saxony (Lugt 971), the last Elector of Saxony, nephew of the Duke Albert who founded the Albertina in Vienna in 1776.
A touching and tender image very rarely depicted, though other compositions involving the three generations of the Holy Family, Mary with her baby son and her mother, were popular.
Circle of PARMIGIANINO
A needlework lesson
Allgemeines Kunstler Lexicon 57, as Giovanni Battista d’Angolo; otherwise unrecorded
134 x 179 mm
A rare 16th century anonymous North Italian etching, after a lost drawing by Parmigianino.
Probably second state of two, with the date 1554 added.
Partial watermark of a crossed arrows with star (cf Briquet 6291, 6299, 6300)
£2000
An unusual and delightful, Parmigianesque, scene of cultivated domestic activity taking place in an open loggia with landscape views, which has attracted two or three other artists also to etch it.
Two late 16th century Northern Engravings
Allegories with signs of the Zodiac, related Seasonal activities and associated Elements
Death checking the time Death resting
90 x 46 mm
Two engravings, a pair or from a series?
Death beneath an Autumnal tree, holding up an hourglass, while in the distant landscape figures tread grapes. The signs of the Zodiac for Scorpio and Sagitarius (October 24-Dec 21), associated with the elements respectively of water and fire.
Death resting beneath a tree with fruit, with a ceremonial dance and release of birds in the distance, suggesting the elements of earth and air traditionally associated with the Zodiac signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, (Dec 22-Feb 18) though a tree in fruit seems un-wintry.
REMBRANDT HARMENZS. VAN RIJN
Leiden 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam
The Ringball Player or The Kolf Player
New Hollstein 282 ii/ii,
96 x 145 mm
Original etching, 1654. The plate signed and dated. Probably an early Basan impression.
This plate is variously known as The Golf Player, The Kolf Player and more recently, The Ringball Player.
The game was a very popular pastime in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Around 1625 Avercamp did a number of paintings with kolf being played on ice but until Rembrandt’s etching I can find no depiction of the ‘pub’ version, it often being played in alleys outside Dutch ale houses.
ARTHUR PAUNZEN
Vienna 1890 – 1940 Douglas, Isle of Mann, Central Internment Camp
Der Abschied aus dem Lied von der Erde
The Farewell from Mahler’s The Song of the Earth
320 x 233 mm
Original etching and aquatint, 1920.
The sixth and final plate of Das Lied von der Erde.
The plate signed. Signed in pencil and entitled.
The six songs of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, were composed 1908-09 and set verses from ancient Chinese poets. The Farewell conflated two poems by two authors, the eighth century Mong Kao-Jen and Wang Wei, who were friends and addressed the poems to each other.
Mahler sings a farewell, but his song of and to the earth is,
at its close, a song of love and of life (Maurice Sternberg).
Mong Kao-Jen’s lines include
From the shadows of my firs comes a cool rustling.
I stand here and await my friend;
I await his last farewell.
…
Oh beauty! Oh world, drunk with love and life forever!
ALICE BARNWELL
1910 – 1980
Beech Woods
216 x 304 mm
Original etching. Signed in pencil and entitled. Printed in brown-black ink on cream wove paper
£120
Published December 2021.
Quarto paperback; 144 pages, 281 items offered for sale, all illustrated
(Price U. K. £25; Europe £30; Rest of the World £35)
Prints available
Prints from this catalogue are still available.
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