Lot 6: JAN VAN DER STRAET, CALLED STRADANUS

BRUGES 1523 - 1605 FLORENCE THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH REJOICING OVER THE OATH TO THE LORD (2 CHRON. 15:11-14) Pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white, over indications in black chalk; indented for transfer; signed, lower right: ioa stradanus inven, and bears inscription in pen and ink, verso, now obscured 207 by 285 mm

M. Leesberg, The New Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700. Johannes Stradanus Part I, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, 2008, p. 202, under no. 144

Sale, Paris, Millon, 26 June 2002, lot 3; with Flavia Ormond Fine Art, London, 2002

Engraved: In reverse, by Adriaen Collaert1 This drawing is the design, in reverse, for one of a series of plates after Stradanus, illustrating the theme The Eulogy of Music (fig. 1).2 The series consists of a title-page with personifications of Harmony, Melody and Rhythm, and a further 16 plates (numbered 3-18), illustrating a variety of Biblical episodes in which music plays a significant part. All except one of the plates were engraved by Adriaen Collaert (no. 16 was executed by Theodoor Galle), and the series was published in Antwerp under the title Encomium Musices by Philips Galle in about 1589-90. No exact dating is recorded, but the preparatory studies for plates 12-14, now in Brussels, are all dated 1589.3 Each of the prints bears six lines of Latin verse, composed by Johannes Boghe (Bochius) describing the story depicted. Here, we see a conflation of two verses from the 2nd Book of Chronicles, chapter 15: "And they offered to the Lord...of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep." (verse 11); "And they swore to the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets." (verse 14). The preparatory drawings for 14 of the 17 plates are in the Royal Library, Brussels4; that for plate 17 was together with the present sheet on the art market in 2002, and the location of the preparatory drawing for the title-page is unknown. 1. Leesberg, op.cit., no. 144 2. Leesberg, The New Hollstein, op. cit., nos. 135-151 3. Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, Prentenkabinet, inv. S IV 37876-37878 4. Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, Prentenkabinet, inv. S IV 37868-37881