Emanuel von Baeyer
London

Portrait of Bartholomäus Spranger and his Wife. 1600



Aegidius Sadeler
ca. 1570 Antwerpen – 1629 Prague

Engraving after Bartholomäus Spranger. Sheet size: 29.9 x 42.1 cm. Hollstein 332, II.

Vigorous black impression with narrow margins. A small tear in upper left, elsewhere of good preservation.

“In this thoughtful allegorical double portrait Spranger commemorates his wife Christiana Müller who died in 1600. While he himself is shown in the round surrounded by representations of the Arts and of Fame, she appears as a picture, entranced, above a sarcophagus, amongst symbols of Faith and Wisdom... In this print we witness a most felicitous meeting between Spranger’s spiritual-intellectual ideas, his highly sophisticated sense for composition and Sadeler’s virtuosity in engraving” (Heinrich Geissler in: Meisterwerke alter Druckgraphik aus der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Exh. cat. Graphische Sammlung Stuttgart, 1983, cat. no. 132, p. 129 with ill.)

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