Description

PORTRAIT BUST OF POMPEY* Head of Pompey (?), on a plain plinth, looking forwards. *The British Museum Curator has cast doubts as to whether this actually is Pompey; suggests it is more likely to be the young Augustus - refer to notes accompanying the BM's copy. 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 53 Print size: 6.75 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. NOTE rippling/bubbling at the corners through rather careless laying down. I try to show defects in my photos. Otherwise condition OK - a good, strong, clear impression. Remember this is a fragile work on paper over 300+ years old! Masterly quality etching at a really low price!! 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. 1850, 0810, 806 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.279.53 *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