While browsing through the digital collection of the Rijksmuseum, I ran into two reproductions of a painting I was supposed to see in real life last year, namely the Genius of the Arts by Carlo Bononi (1569-1632) that was exposed … Continue reading A print and a drawing after Bononi at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
“This punchbowl, which was produced for export to England, is decorated with four scenes of musicians playing their instruments. The larger scenes depict European musicians while the smaller ones on the sides show Chinese musicians in concert. A print by … Continue reading Give me a print, I will turn it into a bowl
The detail in the picture is taken from a small impression included in an illustrated Bible from 1642. The signature reads: “MHem.In. / CVS” and something. These inscription indicates that Maarten van Heemskerck (1498 – 1574) invented the composition … Continue reading Printer’s tool(s).
Recently we sold a print rarely seen in collections, the “Christ and his disciples on the way to Emmaus”, engraved by Domenico Vito, monaco Vallombrosano (fl. 1574-1578). This composition is a mirrored smaller copy from another engraving made by Philips … Continue reading A recently sold print.
Frontispieces are prints facing the title-page of books (with exceptions, of course) . As plates, they usually illustrate the content of the book with more or less complex iconographies, but in many occasions the plate shows a portrait. This can … Continue reading Please, DO disturb
In 1594 Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) engraved a set of large plates with the Stories of the Virgin, also called “The Masterpiece”. The plates, 6 in total, are really big and in each of them the engraver explicitly imitates the graphic language … Continue reading Goltzius’ Self-portrait
Back in 2014 I was asked to write an article for the Festschrift dedicated to Prof. Ton Koopman for his 70th birthday (ed. Albert Clement, Studies in Baroque, Butz Verlag 2014). I wrote a piece on one etching in his … Continue reading Bouchardon and Geminiani
It takes very little time to fall in love with Berlin. Although my visit was very short (one and a half day) I managed to walk around the city a bit and behold its charm. I lodged in Kreuzberg, the … Continue reading Quick jump to Berlin
Oh yes, former Haarlem major and book publisher Jan van Suren (1517-1591), masterfully engraved in a very intense portrait by Hendrick Glotzius (1558-1617), a few years later appeared in a collection of Saints designed by Crispijn de Passe I (1564-1637), … Continue reading And the printer became Judas
Anna Bianco 