When
I selected this very beautiful tiny engraved roundel by one of the Nuremberg Little Masters to showcase tonight, I was hoping that my
background research about it would be straight forward; after all, the print
is in the collection of the British Museum. I was wrong. The more I searched
who the Master/Monogrammist
IB might “really” be the more the proposed attributions flowed … I even found
an auction house that had this print as being by Master FG (aka Girolamo
Faccioli), but to my eye the monogram is clearly “IB”. Certainly, if I were to adopt
the attribution given by “The Illustrated Bartsch” (vol., 16, p. 77, cat. no.
31), I should feel comfortable proposing that the printmaker might be Georg
Pencz (c1500–1550) as Georg Pencz’s name is bracketed after Master I.B. Nevertheless,
the biographical notes for Master IB provided by the British Museum are a tad
unsettling: “Nuremberg
Little Master printmaker; sometimes wrongly identified with the young Georg Pencz or Jacob Binck” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG146405).
I would have loved to follow the BM’s dismissal of Georg Pencz as being the true
identity of Master IB, but after close examination of little details (e.g., how
Master IB uses strokes to render his figures’ necks or the manner of
representing the directional curls in hair, I am still uncertain who is
correct).
Master IB
(aka Monogrammist
IB; Georg Pencz [TIB attrib.]; Jacob Binck [Nagler former attrib.]) (fl.1523–1530)
“Genius
of History” (aka “Le genie de l’histoire” [Bartsch title]), c1523–1530.
Engraving
on fine laid paper trimmed around the borderline and backed with a support
sheet.
Size:
(sheet dia.) 5.7 cm.
Inscribed
in plate: (lower right) “IB”.
TIB
16.31 (Robert A. Koch [ed.] 1980, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Early German
Masters: Jacob Bink; Georg Pencz; Heinrich Aldegrever”, vol., 16, New York, Abaris Books, p. 77, cat.
no. 31); Bartsch 31 (Adam von Bartsch 1860, “Le Peintre-Graveur“, vol. 8., Leipsic,
R. Weigel, p. 309, cat. no. 31 [see https://archive.org/details/lepeintregraveu10weiggoog/page/309/mode/1up).
Adam
von Bartsch offers the following description of this print: (transl.) “The
genius of history, expressed by the figure of a winged woman writing on a
table. She is seated, seen in profile and turned to the right, where we see a
cuirass, a shield and a helmet placed on the ground in the background. The
letters I B are engraved at the bottom of this same side. Round piece.” See
also the description of this print offered by the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1850-0810-581.
Condition:
a well-printed, slightly silvery impression, trimmed around the borderline and laid
onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper providing wide
margins. There is a dot stain (printer’s ink?) below the tablet otherwise the
sheet is in a good condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or foxing.
I
am selling this very small engraved roundel from the early 1500s, executed by a
master from the circle known as the Nuremberg Little Masters, showing an
angelic female personification of history seated beside armour while she records
all that has happened through time on a stone tablet, for the total cost of
AU$514 (currently US$342.66/EUR314.22/GBP276.08 at the time of this listing)
including 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 exceptionally beautiful, jewel-like tiny
engraving, 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
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