Fauns and bacchantes dancing

Fauns and bacchantes dancing and making music; copy after Agostino Veneziano (Bartsch XIV.203.250) after an antique relief; the group dancing to left.

Etching on iron, circa 1530-50, signed at upper centre-right on the shield: 'I.H'.

Example of the rare first state of two, before the number.

Hieronymus Hopfer (around 1500 in Augsburg; † after 1550 in Nuremberg) was a German etcher and weapons etcher. He was born around 1500 as the second son of Daniel Hopfer, who worked in the same trade in Augsburg. Only a few biographical details are known; in 1529 the Augsburg council allowed him to go to Nuremberg for a year, in 1531 Hopfer gave up his ancestral citizenship completely and he died in Nuremberg after 1550. His known works are mainly copies after woodcuts and engravings by German (Dürer, Cranach) and Italian (Barberi, Campagnola, Mantegna) artists, as well as etchings after medals and reliefs.

The Hopfers were specialists in etching on iron; Daniel Hopfer contended with Albrecht Duerer for the primacy of the first etching on iron, a material that, however, had the problem of rapid oxidation. Hopfer's works, therefore, often show oxidation stains on the plate; this problem greatly limited the print run of the plates, making contemporary engravings, therefore, very rare. Almost all of the Hopfers' plates were acquired by the publisher David Funck (1682-1709) a German printer who reprinted the works after numbering them. The addition of the number distinguishes the definitely more common second state examples.

A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the platemark, very good condition.

Bibliografia

Hollstein, German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700 (33.I); Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur (VIII.513.29).