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  • Place of origin:

    Antwerp, Belgium

  • Date:

    ca. 1600

  • Artist/Maker:

    Adriaen Collaert, born 1555 - died 1618 (engraver)
    Galle, Philip, born 1537 - died 1612 (publisher)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Engraving

  • Museum number:

    E.3-1923

  • Gallery location:

    Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D, case EO, shelf 12

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This set of four designs by Adriaen Collaert (c.1560-1618) would have been used to decorate plates or spice bowls. Spice bowls were small dishes (around 30 cm.) used to present sweets at the end of a meal, and were usually made with gold or silver. The centre of each of Collaert’s designs shows a specific mythological figure associated with the sea. In each, a band around the central image shows fantastical scenes of sea monsters, mermen and nudes. Many of the surrounding figures emphasise the identity of the central figures. For example, Arion is surrounded by musicians while the border of the Venus plate shows lovers and young woman admiring herself in a mirror. Around the outer rim of each design is a different geometric design. If these images were ever implemented in the production of a dish, they would have been luxurious and fashionable objects.

Physical description

Square print with black ground on top of which is the design for the plate or cup; the design consists of a thin geometric border, and within it a broad ring decorated with fish, mermen and other sea creatures, and within that, a particular mythological figure, in this case, Arion.

Place of Origin

Antwerp, Belgium

Date

ca. 1600

Artist/maker

Adriaen Collaert, born 1555 - died 1618 (engraver)
Galle, Philip, born 1537 - died 1612 (publisher)

Materials and Techniques

Engraving

Marks and inscriptions

"1 Adria. Collaert fecit Phls Galle excudit"

Dimensions

Height: 16.6 cm, Width: 15.8 cm

Object history note

Though the central scenes are from the Old Testament rather than Classical mythology, see the silver spice bowls in the Victoria and Albert collection (M.55C-1946) to get an idea of how the Collaert designs may have been realised. (F. Allitt)

Descriptive line

Design for a plate or cup with Arion, from a series of four such designs after Adriaen Collaert. Flemish, ca. 1690.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Blanc, M. Ch. Le, Manuel de l’amateur d’estampes contenant le dictionnaire des graveurs de toutes les nations. Dans lequel sont décrites les Estampes rares, précieuses et intéressantes avec l’indication de leurs différents états et des prix auxquels ces Estampes ont été portées dans les ventes publiques, en Frances et à l’Etranger, depuis un siècle, II, Paris 1856, p. 37, 216-19.
Diels, A., ‘Wat d’yser can bemaelen’: prenten van de Antwerpse graveursfamilie Collaert (1550-1630). Exh. Cat. Koninklijk Bibliotheek Albert I, Brussel 2005, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel 2005, pp. 98-99, 23.
Hollstein, F.W.H., et al., Dutch and Flemish etchings engravings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700, Amsterdam 1949-87; Roosendaal 1988-93; Rotterdam 1995-2004, vol. IV (Adriaen) 408-11.
Hollstein, F.W.H., et al., Dutch and Flemish etchings engravings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700, Amsterdam 1949-87; Roosendaal 1988-93; Rotterdam 1995-2004, vol. VII, (after Ph. Galle) p 83, 1-4.
Hymans, H. Catalogue des estampes d’ornement faisant partie des collections de la Bibliothèque Royal de Belgique, Bruxelles 1907, pp. 243, 271.
Jessen, P., Der Ornamentsstich: Geschichte der Vorlagen des Kusthandwerks seit dem Mittelalter, Berlin 1920, pp. 96-98.
Jong, M. de and I. de Groot, Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet I: 15de & 16de eeuw, Amsterdam 1988, 62.
Katalog der Ornamentstich-Sammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek Berlin, Berlin-Leipzig 1939 [reprint New York 1958], 518, and ill. 217.
Katalog der Ornamentstich-Sammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek Berlin, New York 1958 [reprint from Berlin-Leipzig 1939], 1008.
Nagler, G.K., Die Monogrammisten, München, 1858-79, vol. I, p 127, 294.
Ritter, F. Illustrierter Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung des K.K. Österreich. Museums für Kunst und Industrie, Wien 1871, p. 156.
Sellink, M., ‘As a Guide to the Highest Learning; an Antwerp Drawing book dated 1589’, Simiolus 21 (1992), pp. 40-56; pp. 52, ill. 25.
Sellink, M., Philips Galle (1537-1612). Engraver and Print Publisher in Haarlem and Antwerp, Gouda-Rotterdam 1997 [Ph.D. diss. VU Amsterdam], vol II, p. 329, App. 3 D.
Wurzbach, A. von, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexicon, Wien-Leipzig 1906-11, 24 (Adriaen).
Wurzbach, A. von, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexicon, Wien-Leipzig 1906-11, vol. I, pg. 567, 1 (after Ph. Galle).

Subjects depicted

Fish; Lyre; Trumpet; Lute; Mermen; Turtle; Arion and the Dolphin

Categories

Ornament prints

Collection code

PDP

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Qr_O772282
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