Grotesque ornamental panel by Hans Vredeman de Vries, etching ca. 1565-71

Engraving

From the Rosenhelm Collection

According to Peter Fuhring, the author of Hollstein XLVII 'The compositions reflect the Italian grotesques, but they are directly inspired by the small panels with grotesques of Jacques Androuet Ducerceau, Orléans 1550 and Paris 1562.'

According to Van der Stock, p.157, Gerard de Jode confined himself to artistic publications aimed primarily at collectors and artists.

Historical significance: Although Vredeman de Vries seems never to have visited Italy his prints published in Antwerp were very influential in disseminating a northern vision of the Italian grotesque across Europe.

This is one of a set of sixteen grotesque prints by this artist who in his lifetime designed at least twenty seven volumes of prints, many of which were concerned with architecture including the architectural orders, perspective and town planning .

As Karel van Mander wrote in 1604, 'Antwerp in our Netherlands seems like a mother of artists, as Florence used to be in Italy' quoted in A.Wells-Cole 'Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England', London 1997, p.45

'The success of the Antwerp print industry overall was such that their products reached almost every part of the civilised world, influencing the art of many countries including - besides England - Russia and Moghul India.' Wells-Cole p.46

This is an example of a type of print which combines real and imaginary elements in a symmetrical arrangement and which stylistically is called grotesque. The grotesque style originated in Italy in the decades around 1500 and was inspired by a revival of a type of decoration found in the excavated palace of the Roman emperor Nero.

Italian grotesque prints first appeared at the beginning of the sixteenth century and spread the style across Europe. This print was one of a set of fifteen variations on the theme published in Antwerp, a very significant centre of print publishing from the 1540s to the 1580s.

E.364-1926