Jan Sadeler I’s engraving, “Landscape with a Hunter Aiming His Bow at a Bird”, c1599, after Hans Bol

Jan Sadeler I (aka Johann Sadeler; Johannes Sadeler) (1550–1600)

“Landscape with a Hunter Aiming His Bow at a Bird” (TIB title], c1599, published in Vencie, after a lost drawing by Hans Bol (aka Jan Bol) (1534–1593) with lettered Latin text by Andrea Alciati (aka Andreas Alciatus) (1492–1550), copied after “Emblemata” (Venice, 1599) (see https://archive.org/details/emblemataandreae00alcia/page/83/mode/1up).

Engraving on laid paper with partial “Sun” watermark.

Size: (sheet) 24.4 x 35.2 cm; (plate) 22 x 26.7 cm; (image borderline) 19.4 x 26.6 cm.

Inscribed in plate along lower edge within the image borderline: (left of centre) “Ioa Sadeler sculpsit Venetijs”; (right) “I. Bol.”

Lettered in three columns of two lines of Latin below the image borderline: “Dum turdos visco, pedica dum fallit alaudas,/ Et iacta altivolam figit harundo gruem,// Dipsada no prudens auceps pede perculit, ultrix/ Illa mali, emissum virus ab ore inacit.// Sic obot extento qui Sydera respicit arcu,/ Securus fati quod iacet ante pedes./ And. Alciat.”

State i (of i)

TIB 7001.519 (Isabelle de Ramaix 2003, “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 70, Part 3 [Supplement], New York, Abaris Books, p. 129, cat. no. [7001].419); Hollstein (Johann Sadeler I) 563 (Dieuwke de Hoop Scheffer [comp.] 1980, “Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700: Aegidius Sadeler to Raphael Sadeler II: text”, vol. 21, Amsterdam, Van Gendt & Co, p. 176, cat. no. 563); Le Blanc 185; Edquist, p. 207, no. 41a.

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print: (transl.) “Hilly landscape with farms. To the right a covered wagon wading through the river. In the foreground left, a hunter tries to shoot a bird. However, he is bitten in the foot by a snake. This is the depiction of an emblem where the moral of the story teaches that pride comes before a fall. The print has a Latin caption with the caption of the emblem Qui Alta Contemplantur Cadere by Andrea Alciati.” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.168706)

Condition: a strong and well-printed (near faultless) impression in an excellent/near pristine condition for its age with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant stains.

I am selling this sensitively executed and very beautiful engraving by one of the most famous of the Flemish old masters, for AU$305 (currently US$193.70/EUR198.01/GBP172.53 at the time of posting this print) 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 illustration of the fable of the “Bird Catcher and the Serpent” with the moral that pride comes before a fall, 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