Monday, April 24, 2017

17th-century Etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar

Wenceslaus Hollar
Self-portrait, age 40
1647
etching
British Museum

Wenceslaus Hollar
Title-page for a set of Hollar's prints, published at Antwerp
1645
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar after Leonardo da Vinci
Twelve caricature heads
1640s
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

BRONZE AGE

Then formed our Father Jove a third Descent;
Whose Age was brazen; clearly different
From that of Silver. All the Mortals there,
Of wilde Ashe fashioned; stubborne and austere;
Whose Mindes the harmefull facts of Mars affected;
And Petulant Injurie. All Meates rejected,
Of Naturall fruits, and Hearbs. And these were They,
That first began that Table Cruelty,
Of slaughtering Beasts; And therefore grew they fierce;
And not to be indur'd, in their Commerce.
Their ruthless Mindes in Adamant were cut;
Their strengths were dismall; And their shoulders put
Inaccessible hands out, over all
Their brawny limbs, armed with a brazen wall.
Their Houses all were brazen; All of Brasse,
Their working Instruments; for blacke Iron was
As yet unknowne: And, these (their owne lives ending;
The vast, and cold-sad house of hell-descending)
No grace had in their ends: But though they were
Never so powrefull; and enforcing feare;
Blacke Death reduc't their Greatnes in their spight,
T'a little Roome; And stopt their chearefull light.

 from Works and Days by Hesiod (ca. 700 BC) translated into English by George Chapman (1618)

Wenceslaus Hollar after Adam Elsheimer
Satyr dining with farmer
1644
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar after Adam Elsheimer
Recognition of Ceres
1646
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Wenceslaus Hollar after Titian
Portrait of Pietro Aretino
ca. 1649
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar after Titian
Portrait of Daniele Barbaro
ca. 1650
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar after Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Elizabeth Harvey
1646
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar
Portrait of John Price, Englishman
1644
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar after Anthony van Dyck
 Portrait of Margaret Lemon 
(mistress of painter Anthony van Dyck)
1646
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar
View of Richmond
1648
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar
View of Covent Garden, London
ca. 1647
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar
Views of London before and after the Great Fire
1666
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar
Ships in a heavy sea
1665
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem