Description

PORTRAIT BUST OF FAUSTINA Head of a Roman female, probably Antonia Augusta, mother of the Emperor Claudius, slightly turned to right, wearing a veil and diadem. Original etching by Jan de Bisschop, also known as Johannes Episcopus (Dutch, 1628-1671). Inscribed at the bottom and with Bisschop's "JE" monogram right corner. From the "Paradigmata..." series. Numbered plate 56 Print size: 6.25 x 4.75 inches, plus small support sheet Condition: Printed on thin laid paper. Trimmed to on or about the image line, and attached at the corners/edges to a thicker support sheet of laid eighteenth century paper. A good, strong, clear impression. An accomplished draughtsman and engraver, Bisschop worked in Italy from 1655 to 1657, which brought him into contact with the works of the Italian Old Masters, and with Classical statuary. His first series of prints, the Signorum Veterum Icones, was published in 1668/69, and another series, the Paradigmata Graphices Variorum Artificum, which was based mainly on the Italian Old Master drawings, was published in 1671 - shortly after his death the same year. Online resources: See British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings no. 1869, 0410.2252 Bisschop's work is to be found in most major museum collections. Library resources: Hollstein "Dutch and Flemish ...", 6. Van Gelder, (1985) "Jan de Bisshop and his Icones & Paradigmata..." I.280.56 *Bisschop's work is important in the history of art, because he engraved several early Renaissance master drawings by artists which have since become lost or which have not survived to the modern age. THIS IS A SCARCE PRINT