Passio, mors et resurrectio Dn. Nostri Jesu Christi.
About this Item
6 engravings, 195 x 150 mm each, mounted to gilt card in sets of three. Six rare engravings, in exceptional contemporary hand colour with lavish use of gold - very probably prepared for the Medici circle, where Stradanus served as the court artist. - This is the first edition of a suite of twenty-one engravings (one engraved title and twenty numbered prints) designed by the Flemish painter Jan van der Straet, known as Stradanus. The didactic purpose of each engraving is reminiscent of a 15th century Biblia Pauperum, in that the text at the top is the prefiguration from the Old Testament, while that at the bottom is from the Gospels. - Born in Bruges in 1523, Stradanus trained in his father's shop, then in Antwerp with Pieter Aertsen. By 1545, he had joined the Antwerp painters' guild of Saint Luke. He moved to Florence in 1550, where he spent most of his prolific career, in the service of the Medici dukes and Giorgio Vasari. His designs, engraved by such Flemish masters as Theodore Galle, Jan Collaert, and Joannes Wierix, gained immense popularity throughout Europe, and his work is widely regarded as the peak of Renaissance engraving. - Complete sets of Stradanus's "Passio" are rare, and even singular examples of any of the engravings are seldom encountered. Worldcat records only three copies. - Closely trimmed, and originally mounted on poor quality stiff gold card for framing; backing boards removed by Celia Withycombe ACR ICON, Senior Conservator, Oxford Conservation Consortium, April-June 2017.1 Each engraving appears to be in a proof state, in advance of signing by the artist and engraver. - PBA Galleries, Sale 601, 17 November 2016, lot 37.
Seller Inventory # 66262