Jan
de Visscher (aka Johannes
Visscher) (1633–c1692)
“Shepherds and a Young Woman on an Ass” (Rijksmuseum title), 1670,
from a series of four plates (Hollstein 113-116; impressions in the
BM 1870,0709.248-251), “Landscape with people and animals”, after Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22–83) and published
by Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702).
Engraving and etching on fine laid paper trimmed along (or within)
the platemark.
Size: (sheet) 25.6 x 35.7 cm; (image borderline) 24.7 x 35.2 cm
Inscribed with number (only partially visible) in lower right
corner; “2”
Hollstein Dutch 114
The British Museum offers the following description of this print:
“A woman riding a mule gesturing with her arm and a man stopping
to tighten the straps to his steed with a river beyond; after Berchem”
(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1518681&partId=1&searchText=Visscher+&page=1). See also the description of this print at the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.191501
Note: the Rijksmuseum refers to the animal that the young woman is
riding as an ass whereas the BM describes it as a mule. I know that there
should be a difference beyond each having a different number of chromosomes but
the question of which authority is correct in describing it as either an ass or
mule is beyond me.
Condition: richly inked impression of exceptional quality—clearly
a lifetime impression—but the sheet is trimmed along (or slightly within) the
platemark and there is a loss of the tip of the lower-right corner. The sheet
has been laid onto a conservator’s support sheet and the missing corner has
been replenished with matching colour on the support sheet.
I am selling this large(ish) engraving of superb quality for the
total cost of AU$168 (currently US$132.94/EUR112.55/GBP103.63 at the time of
this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.
If you are interested in purchasing this masterwork by Visscher that
sparkles with light and movement, 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
Each era has hallmark stylistic tendencies—fashions—that artists
build upon. For example, this print has some of the key ingredients of the
Baroque period style.
Note for instance the dramatic gestures of the young woman riding
a mule as she indicates towards the distant fortressed town. Not only is her
gesture unambiguously clear, as if she were performing on a stage, but the length
of her arm directing attention is so curiously long—mindful that most ladies’
forearms are the length of their feet (i.e. from the tip of their big toe to
their heel) or the length of their head (i.e. from their chin to the top of their
head)—that her grand gesture fits the Baroque mould of being “larger than life.”
Note also that the light falling on the figures is
equally dramatic. What I mean by this is that the effect of light and shade
portrayed here is less about giving three-dimensional form to the figures, as
might be the case in the Renaissance era, and more about creating visual havoc symptomatic
of the Baroque era where each small area of strong tonal contrast in the image competes
with the next for our attention. This “competition” for attention results in a
plethora of too much information for the mind to be able to carefully
scrutinise anything properly—a bit like trying to see a single fish in a school
of fish darting around. In short, the mixture of dramatic gestures, strong lighting
and the compositional weaving of all the small “happenings” portrayed in the
scene—I especially like the way that the dog shown on the left is engaged in
visual dialogue with the sheep at right of centre—renders this simple rural
scene with a dynamic energy typifying the Dutch Baroque period style of the
late 17th century.
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