Christoffel van Sichem II’s woodcut, “St Paul”, c1646

 

Christoffel van Sichem II (1581–1658)

“St Paul” (recto),  c1646, woodcut on laid paper framed with a composite of four woodcut panels as the title plate to “D'Epistel van S. Pavwels tot de Galaten” (Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians) with Dutch letterpress text recto and verso, featuring a woodcut ornamental endpiece verso also executed by Christoffel van Siechem II (see the Rijksmuseum’s description of this verso woodcut: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.590004). The leaf was published in Antwerp in 1646 in “Het Nieuwe Testament ons Salichmaeckers Jesu Christi...”, pages 321 (recto) and 322 (verso), by Pieter Jacobsz. Paets (1587–1657/67) (see the British Museum’s description of the title plate for this publication: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1895-1031-1014).

Archive.org offers an online view of all pages in this publication; see the page with this particular print: https://archive.org/details/hetnieuwetestame00leem/page/320/mode/2up.

Note that the woodcut frame surrounding the centre image of St Paul is a composite impression from four separate plates based on designs derived from pictorial elements of late sixteenth century French and Flemish prints. There were a number of different panels that were combined to create slightly different versions of “frames” that Van Sichem employed for his prints; see for example:

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-1964-3343;

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.414507;

 http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.414508.

Size: (leaf) 34.2 x 21.5 cm; (plate image borderline) 9.8 x 7 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower right) “CVS” (ligature monogram of artist).

Condition: a superb near faultless lifetime impression (based on the woodcut showing no sign of wear to the printing plate). The sheet has a nibbled corner and a small dot stain in the lower text, otherwise it is in excellent/museum quality condition.

I am selling this woodcut masterpiece by the artist known as "The Dutch Dürer"—interestingly, unlike Dürer's approach to woodcuts as shown in his famous “Rhinoceros” print, Van Sichem’s “St John” is rendered entirely by parallel strokes with no cross-hatching—for AU$344 in total (currently US$244.37/EUR209.11/GBP188.32 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this exceptional leaf printed on both sides with strong woodcut impressions by Van Sichem II, 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