Valentin Lefebre’s etching after Veronese, "Gioventù e Vecchiaia" (Youth and old age)

Valentin Lefebre (aka Valentin Le Fevre; Valentin Le Febre; Valentin Lefebure; Valentin Lefèvre) (1637–77)

"Gioventù e Vecchiaia" (Youth and old age), c.1682, after a painting in the Doge’s Palace by Paul Veronese (1528-1588), from the series of 53 etchings by Valentin Lefèvre (Ruggeri I.1-53) after Titian and Veronese, “Opera selectiora quae Titianus Vecellius Cadubriensis et Paulus Calliari Veronensis inventarunt ac pinxerunt”, first published in Venice by Jacob van Campen (1596–1657) in 1682.

Etching on laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and lined on a conservator’s support sheet of fine washi paper

Size: (sheet) 28 x 14.4 cm

Lettered in two lines below the oval borderline: “PAVLVS CALIARY, VERONENSIS, IN, &, PINX / V. Lefebre del. et sculp. J. Van Campen, F. Venety.”

Ruggeri I.43 (Ugo Ruggeri, “Valentin Lefèvre dipinti, disegni, incisioni”, Manerba, Italy, Merigo Art Books, 2001); see also, Frédéric Villot, "Valentin Lefebre, peintre et graveur à l'eau-forte", in 'Le Cabinet de l'amateur et de l'antiquaire', 3, 1844, pp. 169-197.

Condition: crisp and well-printed impression (most likely a lifetime impression based on the quality of the print), trimmed to the image borderline and laid onto a conservator’s support sheet. There is an attractively faded hand-drawn ink borderline at the outer edge of the trimmed sheet. The sheet has three small holes on the left side otherwise the sheet is in very good condition for its age.

I am selling this original etching by Lefebre for a total cost of AU$168 (currently US$127.52/EUR117.15/GBP100.88 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this old master etching from the 17^th century, 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

Sometimes the shape of a format changes the meaning of an image.

For instance, one way of reading the oval borderline in this print is that it simply frames a pair of mythological figures symbolising youth and old age. My experience of the pictorial effect of this oval borderline, however, is more than seeing it as a decorative frame.

For me, the oval shape acts like a keyhole through which I gaze at the figures. Although I may not go as far as to suggest that the format turns me into a keyhole voyeur—a nasty “peeping tom”—there is, nevertheless, the idea that I am in a spatial zone in front of the oval shape that is very different to the spatial zone occupied by the allegorical figures.

Hopefully I am not alone is perceiving a leap from the temporal world around me to the “other” world of gods triggered by this oval format.