Cornelis
Galle I (1576–1650) (attribution by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.114225)
or
Cornelis
Galle II (1615–1678) (attributed by the MFA, Boston: http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/christ-child-st-john-the-baptist-and-lamb-in-landscape-105674)
“The Infant Christ and the Infant John the Baptist Playing with
the Lamb”, 1630–1650, published by Cornelis
Galle I (1576–1650), after a woodcut of the same name by Christoffel Jegher (1596–1652/3), after
Ruben’s painting formerly in the Palazzo Balbi or Palazzo Reale, Genoa (Rooses
185).
Engraving on wove paper lined with a support sheet.
Size: (sheet trimmed irregularly) 40 x 51.8 cm; (plate) 34 x 45
cm; (image borderline) 32 x 44 cm
Lettered on the plate below the image borderline in a line of Latin:
"O Baptista ... clausus exultaras"; (at left below the line of Latin)
"P. P. Rubbens delin."; (at right) "Corn. Galle excudit".
Based on the paper, this is a 19th century impression.
Hollstein 255; Schneevoogt 1873 85.92
The British Museum offers the following description of this print:
“The Infant Christ and the Infant John the Baptist playing with
the lamb; landscape with Christ at right, St John at left and the lamb in
between them, water-lilies and a frog in right foreground; after Christoffel
Jegher who made a woodcut after Peter Paul Rubens”
Condition: faultless late impression that is crisp, well-inked and
well-printed and with generous margins (trimmed slightly irregularly). The
sheet is in generally in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes,
folds, abrasions, stains or foxing) but there are signs of handling in terms of
marks at the lower right corner of the margin. The sheet has been laid upon a
support sheet of fine archival washi paper.
I am selling this large engraving of superb craftsmanship embodying
the spirit of the Mannerist period for AU$278 (currently US$215.89/EUR175.24/GBP156.40
at the time of posting this listing). Postage for this print is extra and will
be the actual/true cost of shipping.
If you are interested in purchasing this exquisite engraving of
timeless quality 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
Attribution of prints is far from easy. Mindful that the Museum of
Fine Art (MFA) in Boston proposes that this print may have been executed by Cornelis
Galle the Younger, whereas the Rijksmuseum proposes that it may have been
executed by his father, Cornelis Galle the Elder, I wish that the true engraver
would reveal himself.
Based solely on what I can see by comparing prints by these two
master engravers, I believe that the selection of the real artist may not be
that difficult. In terms of Galle the Elder (see the middle image detail), he
evolved his subtly nuanced way of rendering forms from the slightly laboured
style of his teacher and father, Philips Galle (see the upper image). There is
a large stylistic leap, however, from Philips Galle to his grandson, Cornelis
Galle II, in terms of using such stylistic attributes as dots—much loved by
Galle Junior (see the lower image)—and a shift from conventionalised modelling of
forms of the grandfather to a fascination with surface textures of his grandson.
If I were to choose which of the artists seems the more
appropriate, I would not hesitate in nominating Cornelis Galle the Elder as the
true engraver. My reason is simply that the rendering of the forms in this
print is based more on the careful alignment of parallel lines that flow with
the contours of the subjects portrayed—a hallmark of the great Cornelis Galle
I—than with superficial textures. Moreover, the same leaning to showing “flow”
results in Galle I’s prints having a light filled sheen to them that I don’t
see the same way in Galle II’s prints.
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