A nobleman raising a goblet besides a heraldic shield

Reference: S25166
Author Theodor DE BRY
Year: 1592
Measures: 80 x 105 mm
€275.00

Reference: S25166
Author Theodor DE BRY
Year: 1592
Measures: 80 x 105 mm
€275.00

Description

A nobleman raising a goblet besides a heraldic shield; illustration from 'Emblemata Nobilitati' , 1592.

Engraving, without signature and printing details.

This is one of ninety-four book-illustrations, from Theodor de Bry's heraldic book 'Emblemata Nobilitati', published in Frankfurt in 1592 (republished in 1593).

The De Brys are best known as book publishers who were active in Frankfurt am Main and for some time in nearby Oppenheim. They were renowned for lavishly illustrated multi-volume projects such as the monumental volumes treating America with many plates derived from drawings by John White.

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was trained as a goldsmith and his early years were spent in Liège in the southern Netherlands and Strasbourg, where in 1560 he enrolled as a member of the Guild of Goldsmiths. He married and his sons Johann Theodor (b.1563) and Johann Israel (b.1565) later became his apprentices. He travelled to Antwerp (1577-1585) and London (1585-1588) which saw a transition to engraving. The subsequent move to Frankfurt saw a decisive shift into book publishing.

At the same time as publishing books, the De Brys produced emblem books and printed alba amicorum such as the Emblemata nobilitati (1592) and Emblemata saecularia (1596). Most of the prints are essentially remarkable miniaturised copies of works by Sebald Beham, Pieter Bruegel the elder, Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, and a myriad of others.

Bibliografia

Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700 (30-123); M. de Jong and I. de Groot, 'Ornamentprenten in het Rijksmuseum I, 15de & 16de eeuw', Amsterdam 1988, no.59.

Theodor DE BRY (Liegi, 1528 - Frankfurt am Main, 29 Marzo 1598).

Engraver, printmaker, publisher and goldsmith. He was apparently trained in Liège as a goldsmith and engraver and was active (under the name Dietrich Brey) as a goldsmith in Strasbourg, where in 1560 he married Catherine Esslinger (1570). He returned to Liège in 1561, where his eldest son, Johann Theodor de Bry, was born, but because of his Lutheran religious convictions de Bry left Liège again to establish citizenship in Strasbourg, where he lived from 1570 to c. 1586 and where his second son, Johann Israel de Bry (b Liège, before 1570; d Frankfurt, 1611), was born. While there he came under the stylistic influence of the Parisian Huguenot Etienne Delaune, who had fled to Strasbourg in 1572. De Bry was married a second time, in 1570, to Catherine, daughter of the Frankfurt goldsmith Hans Rotlinger. In 1588 the de Bry household moved permanently to Frankfurt while Theodor was in England (c. 1586–9) making engraved copies after the watercolours of JOHN WHITE of scenes from the New World. These, with his copies after similar works by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, are his best-known engravings and were used as illustrations in the ten volumes of American travel literature (Grands voyages, Frankfurt am Main, 1590–1618) that he and his sons published. These were a compilation of Girolamo Benzoni’s History of the New World, Thomas Hariot’s Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia and a memoir by Hans Staden of his adventures among the cannibals of Brazil. De Bry’s Lutheran bias led him to emphasize the cruelty of the Spanish conquerors toward the natives they encountered in Peru, and his landscape and figure formulae were made to conform to European standards (the influences of Joachim Patinir and Herri met de Bles are particularly striking). These engravings were the medium through which most Europeans came to view the costumes and customs of the American Indians. He also published a series of portraits of famous men—including Gerard Mercator (1512–94) and Copernicus (1473–1543)—engraved after drawings by Jean-Jacques Boissard (Icones quinquaginta vivorum illustrium doctrine et eruditione praestantium ad vivum effectae, Frankfurt am Main, (1597–9). The engravings, by a number of different artists, form an important precedent for van Dyck’s Iconographie of 1632–44.

Theodor DE BRY (Liegi, 1528 - Frankfurt am Main, 29 Marzo 1598).

Engraver, printmaker, publisher and goldsmith. He was apparently trained in Liège as a goldsmith and engraver and was active (under the name Dietrich Brey) as a goldsmith in Strasbourg, where in 1560 he married Catherine Esslinger (1570). He returned to Liège in 1561, where his eldest son, Johann Theodor de Bry, was born, but because of his Lutheran religious convictions de Bry left Liège again to establish citizenship in Strasbourg, where he lived from 1570 to c. 1586 and where his second son, Johann Israel de Bry (b Liège, before 1570; d Frankfurt, 1611), was born. While there he came under the stylistic influence of the Parisian Huguenot Etienne Delaune, who had fled to Strasbourg in 1572. De Bry was married a second time, in 1570, to Catherine, daughter of the Frankfurt goldsmith Hans Rotlinger. In 1588 the de Bry household moved permanently to Frankfurt while Theodor was in England (c. 1586–9) making engraved copies after the watercolours of JOHN WHITE of scenes from the New World. These, with his copies after similar works by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, are his best-known engravings and were used as illustrations in the ten volumes of American travel literature (Grands voyages, Frankfurt am Main, 1590–1618) that he and his sons published. These were a compilation of Girolamo Benzoni’s History of the New World, Thomas Hariot’s Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia and a memoir by Hans Staden of his adventures among the cannibals of Brazil. De Bry’s Lutheran bias led him to emphasize the cruelty of the Spanish conquerors toward the natives they encountered in Peru, and his landscape and figure formulae were made to conform to European standards (the influences of Joachim Patinir and Herri met de Bles are particularly striking). These engravings were the medium through which most Europeans came to view the costumes and customs of the American Indians. He also published a series of portraits of famous men—including Gerard Mercator (1512–94) and Copernicus (1473–1543)—engraved after drawings by Jean-Jacques Boissard (Icones quinquaginta vivorum illustrium doctrine et eruditione praestantium ad vivum effectae, Frankfurt am Main, (1597–9). The engravings, by a number of different artists, form an important precedent for van Dyck’s Iconographie of 1632–44.