copperplate/paper, 42.5 x 32.5 cm (composition), known one state of the engraving
below the text on the right: P. Paulus Rubbens pinxit; in the center: Petrus de I[o]de Sculpsit; right: Joannes Meÿsens excudit Antverpiae; further right: Joannes Meÿssens Pictor
below composition text: VIRGINEO CAPITI CATHARINÆ IMPONE CORONAM, SPONSULA CHRISTE TUA EST; MATRIS AMICA TUÆ. / Claro Genere Virtute Ornatissimo Reverendoq3 DOMINO D PHILIPPO VAECX alias FOXIO / Sancti Anthony Domüs Preceptori Commendatoriq3, ac eiusdem Ordinis Commissario Generali, honoris et favoris ergo, offert
state of preservation very good; engraving trimmed around the plate imprint, margins touched up
LITERATURE:
- A. von Würzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, erster Band, Wien und Leipzig 1906, p. 759, no. 8 [here erroneously as: Pieter I de Jode].
- F. van de Wijngaert, Inventaris der Rubeniaansche prentkunst, Antwerpen 1940, no. 333.
- F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca 1450-1700, vol. IX, Amsterdam [n.d.], p. 203, no. 65 [here erroneously as: Pieter I de Jode].
- E. Budzinska, Rubens' Graphic School. Catalog of engravings from the collection of the Cabinet of Engravings of the University of Warsaw, Warsaw 1975, no. 47, p. 34.
- A. Treiderowa, E. Fejklowa, Rubens' works in Dutch graphics of the 17th century from the Graphic Collections of the Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, Museum of Art in Lodz [exhibition catalog], Lodz 1976, no. 67, p. 63, fig. 13.
Peter II de Jode's best graphic works were created according to the prototypes of Jacob Jordaens and Pieter Paul Rubens, with whom he came into direct contact in 1633. The engraving on display is one of the best in the engraver's oeuvre as well as the entire Rubens school of printmaking. Noteworthy is the masterful elaboration of the drapery and the excellent characterization of the figures' heads. The composition was created according to a painting Rubens made for the Augustinian church in Malines (Mechelen).
Rarely seen on our market is a 17th-century reproduction engraving by the outstanding printmaker.
