Woodcut. Size of sheet: 24.6 x 19.2 cm. Watermark: a single-handle jug topped by a crown and a flower, with intials R.D. (Briquet 12808, Bruxelles, 1551).

LITERATURE

Nagler, vol 4, p. 457 (under ‘Monnogrammist M’.); The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, no. 183 (under ‘Maarten van Heemskerck’); TIB. 55, 21.6 (Coornhert).

 

A very fine early impression with small margins around the borderline. A good relief still visible verso. No signs of ink retouchment.

 The print bears the artist monogram MH, which connected it to Maarten van Heemskerck, but it now believed to be the work of  Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert. 

 The image derives from The Story of Tobias [Tobit 2:10‐11]  from the set after Maarten van Heemskerck  1498 Heemskerck – 1574 Haarlem).  Tobias reclines beneath a bird’s nest on a beam above; on the floor are flail and a basket containing wheat; a woman sits at a spinning wheel beyond at left.

 A refined example of an early woodcut. Comparable with works by Christoffel van  Sichem  and Hendrick Goltzius, but half a century earlier. 

 Very rare, also in this good state of preservation.