Leonhard Beck’s woodcut, “St Ermelindis”, 1517

Leonhard Beck (1475/80–1542)

“St Ermelindis” (aka Ermelindis of Meldert [c510–c590]), 1517, plate 35 from the series of 87 woodcuts, “Saints connected with the House of Habsburg”, plate cut by Claus Seman (1480–1542) and published in “Saints Connected with the House of Hapsburg: A General Account of the Ancestry of Emperor Maximilian I”.

This impression is from the later edition printed by Anna Alberti (fl.1794-1802) and published by Franz Xaver Stöckl (1763–1815) in Vienna in 1799 using the original woodblocks (see http://www.virtuelles-kupferstichkabinett.de/de/detail-view.

Woodcut on watermarked laid paper with full wide margins and stitch binding holes on left as published.

Size: (sheet) 41.5 x 29.7 cm; (image borderline) 23.7 x 21cm.

Numbered in above the image borderline: (right) “35”.

New Hollstein (Leonhard Beck) 35 (Guido Messling [comp.] 2007, “The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700: Leonhard Beck”, Part I, Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel, Sound and Vision, p. 11, cat.no. 35).

See also the descriptions of this print offered by The British Museum and The Cleveland Museum of Art: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1865-0610-396;  https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.435.

Regarding St Ermelindis, the following biographical details may be helpful:

- “A Belgian Saint who lived a life of penance in a little cell in Brebant. She died about A.D. 594, and her relics are enshrined at Meldert.” (https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-ermelinda/)

- “Her parents, rich chatelains, wanted her to marry, but […] she refused [and] ‘cut off her hair […] to dissuade her parents from pushing her into an unwanted marriage contract’ They permitted her to follow her vocation and gave her a little land. She spread her charity to the poor and lived as a hermit in a forested area, probably around Beauvechain. Later, she set up a hermitage in Meldert and spent the rest of her life in prayer and mortification of the flesh.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermelinde)

Condition: a richly inked and superbly printed impression with generously wide margins in excellent condition with no tears, holes (beyond the stitch binding holes on the left edge), creases, abrasions, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this large and superb woodcut, printed from the original 1517 plate in the later 1799 Franz Xaver Stöckl edition, for the total cost of AU$263 (currently US$203.69/EUR169.12/GBP146.54 at the time of 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 startlingly fine woodcut showing St Ermelindis—the virgin saint of Meldert before she cut off her hair to avoid being betrothed to what I assume to be swooning suitors at her feet—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy. (Note that I am undoubtedly wrong about the chaps at St Ermelindis’ feet but my search for information about the saint hasn’t revealed an event that might explain the inclusion of the men in this scene.)

This print has been sold