Pr[a]ecipua Passionis D[omini]. N[ostri]. Iesu Christi mysteria. Ex Serenissimæ Principis Bavariæ Renatæ Sacello desumpta
sold
- Subjects
- Art books - Early works to 1800
- Book illustration - Artists, German - Sadeler (Jan), 1550-1600
- Book illustration - Reproductive printmaking - Schwarz (Christoph), c. 1548-1592
- Book illustration - Reproductive printmaking - Sustris (Friedrich), c. 1540-1599
- Paintings - Artists, German - Schwarz (Christoph), c. 1548-1592
- Authors/Creators
- Sadeler, Jan, 1550-1600
- Artists/Illustrators
- Sadeler, Jan, 1550-1600
- Schwarz, Christoph, c. 1548-1592
- Sustris, Friedrich, c. 1540-1599
- Printers/Publishers
- Cars, Laurent, 1699-1771
- Hoefnagel, Joris, 1552-1600
- Owners
- Camden, Charles Pratt, Earl, 1713/1714-1794
- Camden, John Charles Henry Pratt, 5th Marquess, 1899-1983
- Other names
- Renata, Duchess, consort of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, 1544-1602
Sadeler, Jan i
Brussels 1550 – 1600 Venice
Pr[a]ecipua Passionis D[omini]. N[ostri]. Iesu Christi mysteria. Ex Serenissimæ Principis Bavariæ Renatæ Sacello desumpta.
[Munich, Joris Hoefnagel?], 1589
folio (522 × 350 mm), the set of nine engravings, comprising (1) title, dated 1589 (platemark 450 × 288 mm; Hollstein 233, Illustrated Bartsch 0.195); (2) Christ before Caiaphas or The False Witness, dated 1589 (448 × 292 mm; H. 234, IB 0.196); (3) The Mocking (or Binding) of Christ (445 × 295 mm; H. 236, IB 0.198); (4) Christ falls before Pilate breaking the Reed (445 × 290 mm; H. 237, IB 0.199); (5) Flagellation (295 × 447 mm; H. 235, IB 0.197); (6) Christ Falling under the Cross (446 × 295 mm; H. 238, IB 0.200); (7) Christ stripped of his Garments (447 × 292 mm; H. 239, IB 0.201); (8) Raising of the Cross (448 × 290 mm; H. 240, IB 0.202); (9) Christ on the Cross (448 × 292 mm; H. 241, IB 0.203). All the prints in only state, except ‘Flagellation’ in second state with artist and engraver’s signatures (a single impression of the earlier state is known). Included is an extraneous print of the ‘Flagellation’, engraved by Aegidius ii Sadeler in 1593 (see below).
paper title and six prints struck on a French laid paper with large chaplet watermark (height 165 mm), probably from the Dupuy mill ‘La Grandrive’ in the Auvergne; the other two prints (IB. 0.196, IB 0.197) with countermark of the maker T. Dupuy (initials t d separated by a well-head; 80 mm), who worked between 1685 and 1720.1 Binder’s endleaves: maker A[ntoine?] Delotz (Riom, ‘Moulin de Chanel’, Thiers), his armorial mark and countermark (bunch of grapes).2
provenance Sir Charles Pratt (1713–1794), created Baron Camden in 1765, and Viscount Bayham and Earl Camden in 1786, his exlibris Lord Camden with motto Judicium parium aut lex terrae3 — by descent to John Charles Henry Pratt, 5th Marquess Camden (1899–1983), of Bayham Abbey in the County of Kent — Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions, ‘Selected items from the 5th Marquis Camden Will Trust’, Donnington Priory & London, 14–15 September 2010, lot 1277
Good impressions with broad margins; occasional dust-soiling.
bound in contemporary vellum drawn over paper boards.
(engraving by Jan i Sadeler reduced from 450 × 288 mm, platemark)
This series of engravings reproduces the lost altarpiece installed in 1589 in the private chapel in the Munich Neuveste of Herzogin Renata, wife of Herzog Wilhelm v (‘the Pious’) von Bayern.4 Designed by Friedrich Sustris (1526–1599), Court Superintendent of the arts, and painted by Christoph Schwarz (1548–1592), the altarpiece consisted of nine copper panels: an image of the Crucifixion in the centre, framed by depictions of Christ’s seven falls during his Passion, and a devotional text (Isaiah 53). This type of composition, resembling an iconstasis and probably invented in Italy, was new to countries north of the Alps.
The altarpiece was dismantled in the 18th century and only the Crucifixion panel has survived.5 A comparison of it, a drawing of the altarpiece by Sustris,6 and Sadeler’s prints, indicates that the engravings were made in the same size as the original panels and preserve their essential elements; only one (‘Christ Falling under the Cross’) was reversed by the engraver. It is possible that the title-print (Fig. 1), featuring two angels, the insignia of the Duke and Duchess, and of the Jesuit order, depicts an object once displayed on the altar.7
Sadeler’s prints were intended to make the devotional images available to a wide public. They circulated widely, in Germany and also in Italy, and many drawn,8 painted,9 and engraved copies are known.10 The prints are identified as sources for a wide variety of artists, notably, Peter Paul Rubens, whose lost altarpiece of 1602 for the Capella di Santa Elena of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome, was derived from Sadeler’s print of ‘Raising of the Cross’ (see Fig. 2).11
The date ‘1589’ on the title-print is the date of first issue. Octavianus Secundus Fugger is known to have purchased in that year several sets, all of which were eventually coloured, and the prints framed individually.12 The publisher was probably Joris Hoefnagel, who is identified as the publisher at Munich of other prints by Jan Sadeler.13
In 1595 Sadeler departed Munich for Italy, where he died of the plague in 1600. He bequeathed his engraved matrices to his son (or cousin), Justus Sadeler. After the latter’s death, some matrices were sold to the Scolari, and others to the Remondini;14 nearly a century later, a huge number of matrices somehow came into the possession of the French printmaker-publisher Laurent Cars (1699–1771). In 1748, Cars re-struck as many five hundred of them, selling the prints as a collection, and possibly in smaller suites.15 A review of paper evidence is likely to show that many surviving impressions of Sadeler prints are not contemporary printings, but Italian and French re-strikes.
Twelve sets (including re-strikings) are located in Isabelle de Ramaix’s 1999 census16
● Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum ● Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett ● Coburg, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg ● Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst ● Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Kupferstich-Kabinett ● Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlungen17 ● New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art ● Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen ● Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Graphische Sammlung ● Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Hofburgsammlung ● Wolfegg, Fürstlich zu Waldburg Wolfeggschen Kunstsammlungen ● Zurich, Eidgenössischen Technische Hochschule
and two others are known to the writer
● Munich, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Inv. Nr. M I 151/1–918 ● Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 257844 – F Fid
Incomplete sets are recorded in these repositories
● Basel, Öffentliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstichkabinett (lacks IB 0.203) ● Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (lacks IB 0.202) ● Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert ier (lacks IB 0.203) ● Caen, Musee des Beaux-Arts (lacks IB 0.196) Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum (lacks IB 0.198) ● Darmstadt, Hesisches Landesmuseum (lacks IB 0.198) ● Innsbruck, Universitätsbibliothek (lacks IB 0.200)19 ● Melbourne, University, Baillieu Library (lacks IB 0.195)20 ● Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale (lacks IB 0.196)21 ● Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Sachsen-Teschen Collection (lacks IB 0.202)
Included in this copy is an impression of Aegidius ii Sadeler’s ‘Flagellation’ (442 × 295 mm), dated at Munich 1593, a print purportedly engraved after a drawing or painting by Jacopo Palma il Giovane (1544–1628), but perhaps after Federico Barocci (1526–1612).22
references G.K. Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon (Munich 1845), xiv, p.143 no. 97 (title and eight plates); Charles Le Blanc, Manuel de l’Amateur d’Estampes (Paris 1854–1889), no. 97; F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts ca. 1450–1700; 21. Aegidius Sadeler to Raphael Sadeler ii, compiled by Dieuwke De Hoop Scheffer (Amsterdam 1980), pp.117–118 nos. 233–241 (reproductions in volume 22); The Illustrated Bartsch; 70, Part i (Supplement). Johan Sadeler i, compiled by Isabelle de Ramaix ([New York] 1999), pp.238–249 nos. 0.195–0.203
1. Comparable to Raymond Gaudriault, Filigranes et autres caractéristiques des papiers fabriqués en France aux xviie et xviiie siècles (Paris 1995), pl. 150.
2. Watermark comparable to Gaudriault (op. cit.), pl. 129 and pp.197–198. The countermark in our sheet is a bunch of grapes.
3. F.J. Thairlwall, ‘The book-plates of eminent lawyers’ in Journal of the Ex Libris Society 8 (1898), p.58 (dated 1766–1786 and reproduced).
4. Brigitte Volk-Knüttel, ‘Die Kammerkapellen in der Münchner Neuveste unter Herzog Wilhelm v. von Bayern’ in Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst 55 (2004), pp.138–139.
5. Oil on copper (66 × 29 cm), Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Inv. Nr. 1511; for reproductions, see Rom in Bayern: Kunst und Spiritualität der ersten Jesuiten, catalogue of an exhibition in the Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, Munich, edited by Reinhold Baumstart (Munich 1997), pp.444–445 no. 130; and In Europa zu Hause: Niederländer in München um 1600, catalogue of an exhibition in the Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung München (Munich 2005), pp.204–205 no. D4. The other panels, documented in the Schleißheim gallery in 1748, were lost about 1757 (Volk-Knüttel, op. cit., p.159 note 40).
6. Pen and ink with wash (341 × 269 mm), formerly Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Graphische Sammlung, Inv. Nr. C 175 (destroyed in 1945); for reproductions, see Heinrich Geissler, ‘Unbekannte Entwürfe von Friedrich Sustris’ in Kunstgeschichtliche Studien für Kurt Bauch zum 70. Geburtstag von seinen Schülern, edited by Margrit Lisner und Rüdiger Becksmann (Munich 1967), pp.157–158 (figs. 4–6: the drawing, surviving ‘Crucifixion’ panel, and title to our series of prints); and In Europa zu Hause (op. cit.), pp.202–203 no. D3 (a photo-reproduction of the drawing was exhibited).
7. Geissler (op. cit.), p.157.
8. See, for example, In Europa zu Hause (op. cit.), p.217 nos. D13–14 (anonymous pen and wash copies by a 17th-century German artist, in Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, München).
9. See In Europa zu Hause (op. cit.), pp.204–205 nos. D5–D6, D7–D8 (painted copies from two series, both now incomplete, in Bayerische Staatsgemäldemuseum, München); Vera Icon: 1200 Jahre Christusbilder zwischen Alpen und Donau, catalogue of an exhibition, Diözesanmuseum, Freising (Munich 1987), pp.125–126 no. ix.28 (painted copies of the prints, assembled as an altarpiece around a different image of ‘Christ on the Cross’).
10. Copies of the eight prints by Elias van den Bossche were published by Peter Overadt at Cologne, circa 1600 (impressions in Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP–P–1999–73/81); another set of copies by an anonymous printmaker was published by Pietro Paolo Torri at Padua in 1617 (G.K. Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon, xvi, Munich 1846, p.122). Individual prints also were copied; see, for example, ‘The Mocking of Christ’ published by Matteo Florimi at Siena (IB 0.198).
11. Michael Jaffé, Rubens and Italy (Oxford 1977), p.60 and pl. 183; Michael Jaffé, Rubens: catalogo completo, translated by Germano Mulazzani (Milano 1989), pp.98, 148 no. 19; Stefan Weppelmann, Rubens: die Altarbilder für Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rom (Münster 1998), pp.71–72 and fig. 9 (reproducing Sadeler’s print).
12. Fugger paid 1 Gulden 48 Kreuzer for his first copy and 2 Gulden 36 Kreuzer for another two; one of the latter was initially bound in vellum, before being coloured and framed for display (at either Bobingen or Oberkirchberg); see Norbert Lieb, Octavian Secundus Fugger (1549–1600) und die Kunst (Tübingen 1980), p.88 and pp.266, 301, 304–305, 307 (entries in the Nachlaßinventar 1600–1601).
13. In Europa zu Hause (op. cit.), p.212.
14. Philippe Sénéchal, ‘Justus Sadeler: print publisher and art dealer in early Seicento’ in Print quarterly 7 (1990), p.24.
15. Recueil d’estampes d’après Raphael, Titien, Carache, Baroche, Polidore, et autres, et principalement d’après Martin de Vos; gravées par les celebres Sadeler, contenant plus de cinq cents estampes (Paris: ‘Chez Laurent Cars, graveur du roy’, 1748). A copy (containing 437 prints of the 500 called for on the title-page) in Princeton University Library is described by Dorothy Limouze, ‘Recent acquisitions: Les célèbres Sadeler’ in Princeton University Library Chronicle 44 (1983), pp.155–156. The copy in the Biblioteca Nacional de España reportedly contains 488 prints.
16. The Illustrated Bartsch (op. cit.), 70, Part i (Supplement), pp.238–249 nos. 0.195–0.203.
17. Four impressions (Inv. Nrs. 109873, 109872, 10936, 109877) reproduced in In Europa zu Hause (op. cit.), pp.212–217 nos. D9–12.
18.The entire set is reproduced in Rom in Bayern (op. cit.), pp.437–444 no. 129 (entry by Reinhold Baumstark).
19. Hans Hochenegg, ‘Die Roschmannsche Kupferstichsammlung’ in Die Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek: Festschrift herausgegeben zum 25 jährigen Dienstjubiläum des Generaldirektors Univ.-Prof. Dr. Josef Bick, edited by Josef Stummvoll (Vienna 1948), p.406 (contained in T. iv).
20. Edquist (op. cit.), pp.256–257 nos. 41–48.
21. Désiré Guilmard, Les Maîtres ornemanistes: Dessinateurs, peintres, architectes, sculpteurs et graveurs. Écoles française, italienne, allemande et des Pays-Bas (flammande & hollandaise) (Paris 1880), p.488 no. 34.
22. See Hollstein (op. cit.), xxi, p.16 no. 45; Illustrated Bartsch; 72, Part i (Supplement). Aegidius Sadeler ii, compiled by Isabelle de Ramaix ([New York] 1997), pp.72–73, no. 0.046. Two states of the matrice are recorded: before and – as here – after addition of the publication line Marco Sadeler excudit. For doubts about the attribution to Palma il Giovane, see Dorothy A. Limouze, ‘Aegidius Sadeler’, PhD thesis, Princeton University (1990), p.95; and Isabelle de Ramaix, ‘Les Sadeler: de damasquineur à graveur et marchand d'estampes. Quelques documents inédits’ in Le livre et l’estampe 35 (1989), p.13 (where attributed to Barocci).