Saint Hubert
Patron of Hunters

Chien de Saint Hubert. Half-length portrait. Toned wood engraving by Jules Huyot (Toulouse 1841 – Eaubonne 1921) after Jules Gélibert (Bagnères-de Bigorre 1834 – 1916). C. 1870. 6¾ × 5⅞ in (17 × 15 cm).

Not in Schlieker, Die Verehrung des hl. Hubertus im Wandel der Jahrhunderte, 2016. – Thieme-Becker XIII, 365: “(Gélibert) paints almost exclusively animal and hunting pictures … ” – Pupil of his father, the animal painter Paul G., whose field he favoured together with his brother Gaston and continued including hunting. Showed at the Paris Salon since 1859, then in Brussels & Berlin, too.

Offer no. 14,463 | EUR 66. (c. US$ 71.) + shipping

The South Netherlandish princely “Wild Hunter” as according to Döbel Father of the Par Force Hunt and correspondingly with bugle and 6-head pack kneeling bareheaded before a stag with surroyals in grand wood scenery in the manner of the 3^rd Gillis van Coninxloo (Antwerp 1544 – Amsterdam 1607). On the pool behind the stag two swans as the prophesying birds of mythology, on the trunk above the horse a hissing snake as temptress. Closest to the stag and apart from the others a hound of Saint Hubert as the only one looking at his master. Engraving. (1614.) Sheet size 27½ × 18 in (69.9 × 45.8 cm).

Not among the 172 illustrations of the – as against the first edition of 1927 – richly enlarged second one of Huyghebaert’s Sint Hubertus Patroon van de Jagers in Woord en Beeld, Antwerp ( sic ! ) 1949, see below.

Hollstein 114 & Wurzbach 52, each without characteristics of states, see below, but Wurzbach generally: “The impressions before the addresses of Gerard Valck (1626 – after 1694) & Peter Schenk I (1661-1715). are the better ones for his delicate needle work was worn soon”. – The copy of the Rijksmuseum, acquired only 1991 ( sic ! ), without Marselare arms & “1656”, see below, in the subject and without caption. – Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, V, p. 1600, no. 9 (“Van Sincte Huybrecht een plaet”), documenting the plate per Jan. 16, 1632 in an inventory of the Rotterdam orphan chamber. – Not among the 140 de Bruyn sheets in the British Museum!

Cf. Plietzsch, Gillis van Coninxloo 14 in Die Frankenthaler Maler (1910/1972) with plate V; Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting (2^nd ed., 1968), pp. 65 ff. & ill. 122; Devisscher, Kerstiaen de Keuninck (1987), pp. 36, 89 & ill. Z 10.

With Joannes Meyssens’ (Antwerp 1612 – Brussels 1670; painter, draughtsman, engraver, and publisher; “established one of the biggest art publishing houses in Antwerp” [Wurzbach])

1656 publisher’s dedication for Frederik de Marselaer :

“ I(ll?). Nob(i)lissi(mum) Dno FR(E)DERI(C)O de MARSELAE(R,) Equiti Aurato et Lauretano, Baroni de (Perc)k (et E)lewyt S. Huberti, Toparchæ liberi Dominii de Opdorp. Hærseaux Oycke, etc. … Maⁿ. à Consiliis B(e)lli, septimum Bruxellæ Cons(uli, ha)nc D. Huberti iconem D. C. Q. Io(a)nnes Meyssens ”.

consisting of the ancestral crestbelow the 5-pointed coronet along with the two

par force hounds

erected on both sides, here holding arms banners: on the left the Marselaer one, on the right that of the wife, Margriete van Borainage (de Bernaige, Baronaige, née 1584, nuptials 1626, more see below). Followed below center by the year 1656 which has been restored here in writing. These additions as against the copy in Amsterdam at the expense of marginal image fillers. The new edition at this point imaginable both as commemorative edition on de Bruyn’s death as also, and in connection with the extensive Marselaer reference more probable, as

Ridder Dr. iur. Frederic (Fraderi, Frider) de Marselaer

Lord of Opdorp, alderman, treasurer, and ultimately Lord Mayor of Brussels, graduated 1611 at Leuven, gentleman’s tour to Italy, author of the important two-part work on legations

Khpykeion, sive Legationvm Insigne ,

published first 1618, which interested Rubens, in touch with its author in the course of orders for Brussel’s cityhall, all the more as affecting his own services in diplomatic missions, summarizing in his understanding of the value of negotiating envoys as well in times of peace as war, indeed, quite especially during the latters. In another Antwerp title sheet he gave utterance to this conviction in 1623 by juxtaposition of peace & war by divine prototypes (van de Velde, op. cit., ill. 6) and the same year this train of thought is then also subject of a discussion by correspondence with de Marselaer, who wished for a new title for an overdue enlarged new edition of larger format, too, of his Legatus. Which then, 1626, however, was delivered by Theodoor van Loon, nevertheless in fancy of Rubens. That is with Mercury and combative Minerva and these as opponents looking past each other (van de Velde ill. 3). As conveying just this, too, the omission of the recourse to the de Marselaer device

ARTE ET MARTE

contrary to the 1618 title by an anonymous is to be regretted. Fascinating, however, the further development of this 1626 title fifteen years later by now Rubens himself after his first occupation with it in 1623. Finally leaving behind its usually rather more marginal character as entrée book decoration it catapults to a humanitarian event: Peace & War , Mercury & Minerva , join hands over the title plate of de Marselaer’s Legatus, driving back their contrary attributes. In the rural tranquility of Elewijt – in 1635 Rubens had acquired the feudal country seat Steen van Elewijt, by which the long standing contacts between de Marselaer and himself had become neighborly terms, too – Rubens reviewed, so Carl van de Velde summing up his richly illustrated fine contribution in the 1981 Rubenianum commemorative publication, see below, his own carreer as diplomat and came to a more positive view, had Minerva put aside the combative attributes borrowed from Pallas Athene and find back to her character as the goddess of peace. So far this Rubens aspect important for de Marselaer’s additional positioning.

In his Hubert-centeredness de Marselaer, by marriage (see below) Lord and first baron of Perk & Elewijt, Lord of Herseaux, Oycke, and Loxem, gets central mention in the bull of the Mechelen archbishop Jacobus Boonen of October 15, 1650 by which this recognizes canonically

both the Elewijt Hubert insignia and the Hubert brotherhood

per May 1, 1651. While the latter already existed for a very long time, so the insignia were transferred by the Antwerp Capuchins for the chapel of the castle of Elewijt after former ones were lost by ravage of the church in the course of iconoclasm. The richly decorated bull – Huyghebaert ills. 78-80 – shows as centerpiece of the wide upper ledge the saint as portrait-medallion with bishop’s insignia and apparently the stag’s head on the right and on both sides two arms each for Boonen & Marselear framed by hunting parties, at which, in contrast to her arms banner in the engraving here, that of Lady Marselear cites her husband’s emblems in the left field of the crest. The lateral fields decorated with tulips as then still very precious, at which Huyghebaert considers possible they might be designed as reverence for Rubens whoused to please with suchlike his tulip lover Justus Lipsius. Also for the left group of the upper ledge – ill. 79 – returning from hawking and hunting on high and small game the surroundings of Baerbeek might be considered where Rubens as well as Teniers have painted many landscapes. Whereas

Rubens’ half-length portrait of Frederik de Marselaer

dated by Rosenberg about 1630/35 – a presumed copy offered as genuine recently on the market – appears to have remained unknown to him.

Likewise in 1650 archbishop Boonen already had requested per posters by public reward of a forty-day indulgence to visit the insignia “given to the chapel of the castle of the Lord of Perk and Elewijt”, hoping His Holiness might extend the limited indulgence to a full one as then per 1^st May the following year had been

by Innocence X and published 1651 by poster printed under the papal coat of arms. However, this Elewijt full indulgence was reserved to just the churchgoers “on the day of ST. HUBERT the 3^rd of November each year”.

How much the Marselear name was metonymic as a synonym for the welfare of church & relicts of Elewijt even after the male line became extinct about 1720 is documented by a with 6¼ × 8¼ in (16 × 21 cm) rather large posthumous souvenir engraving by Antoon Opdebeek (1709-1759) at Mechelen with the Hubert scenery in front of the Elewijt church with the Marselear arms above. See in Huyghebeart illustrations 75-77.

Coming from afar the crowd thronged anew at Elewijt, reminding of the great pilgrimages in the early 16^th century when Hubert was appealed for protection against rabies.

Substantially older Perk Castle
as the Marselear ancestral seat at the time of Frederic .

Of simple origin in the 12^th century, building activities from the 17^th to 19^th centuries created one of the most splendid manors of the Brussels area with more than 200 rooms amidst a 222 acres immense park. Via marriage of the Katharina de Wavre (Waver), daughter of Jan de Wavre flourishing between 1347 & 1378 and his heiress of Perk & Elewijt, with Johann van Weede/Bernaige

Ancestral root of this rise was the dominion Opdorp, today incorporated to Buggenhout whose present double arms show the former one of Opdorp, that is of the Marselears, on the left. As baronial Gwijde van Dampierre, count of Flanders, had given it in the 13^th century to Willem van Grimbergen for rendered services. By marriage with Elisabeth van Grimbergen it passed to Geeraerd van Marselear in whose family it then remained for centuries. In 1435 Adriaen van M. erected the chapel there, in place of it threehundred years later a church was erected – with active aid by Ursuline sister Maria Therese van M., daughter of above grandson and heir Frederic Jozef Ignatius, and her heir Jan Willem d’Alvarado y Bracomonte, Burgrave of Lippelo and Lord of Opdorp. In between, 1641, Anton Sanderius wrote in his Flandria Illustrata “This dorp makes a show of a fine castle or palais erected by the lords of Marselears” (illustration there).

If a provenance attribution of present copy to Frederic de Marselear and the grandson Frederic Jozef Ignatius resp. deemed conceivable shall in so far not considered inconsistent as the ascertained Mazzuchelli provenance follows chronologically practically seamlessly to the extinction of the Marselears in the male line, for which in respect of current, albeit not entirely consistent, genealogical records on the family the years about 1720 are to be set. If relations to the Mazzuchellis existed is not known here. Nevertheless, there were such ones to the Spanish family of the Arrazola de Oñate, though politically branched out to Brussels, by marriage of two Marselear daughters, Margriete Frederika Hieronyme (1620-1695, at further relations into the family della Faille, de La Faille, to be localized at different places) & Johanna Angelica (1623 – Dec. 18, 1656).

Mazzuchelli options apart from those by marriage of a granddaughter of Frederic’s and a son (whose wife yet died already at the age of 22) & daughter each of just the thought grandson Frederic Jozef Ignatius as great-grandchildren.

For de Bruyn’s engravings in general

Wurzbach documents dates from 1592 (W. 76) to 1650 (vol. II, p. 217). 1601 he was admitted to the Antwerp guild as engraver and trader. And “On Dec. 4, 1652 he is indicated decrepit in a document” (Th.-B.).

According to Bredius the Antwerp engraver and brother-in-law, Assuerus van Londerseel, has printed and published several of the early works. “As results from the inventory later de Bruyn has handled printing (no. 75: Een druckpers) and publishing of his plates himself … In respect of the drawings and paintings (the latter of which presumably introduced here into literature in concreto for the first time; besides nos. 78 f.: Vyer tonnekens met verwe and Twee saxkens met smalt/cobalt resp.) … it is noticeable that almost all deal with those partly only rarely occuring subjects de Bruyn has engraved, too, suggesting they may have been his designs” (Bredius, op. cit., p. 1599).

At top trimmed to the edge of the subject, at the sides with fine margin, which turns slightly wider below under the dedication line (this with minimal loss due to restauration). Due to several (tiny) tears or thin spots professionally restored by doubling, covered up ultimately withal, utterly ignoring the enormous rarity of the sheet, by the fascinating impact of the picture and its investing in an unparalleled overall concept with the Marselaer dedication added only here as the final dot on the i, documented as indeed

“ ‘For it was time-honored among the nobility of the Ardennes to commute, through all seasons, the firstlings among the tithe of any game for St. Hubert’ (L. p. 48).

The hunters asked Hubert for protection

and presented him with their bounties .

He should protect them from the many hazards the practice of any hunting brings with it, especially as in those days the hunt for powerful game in the impenetrable woods – armed with just arrow, bow, lance, and spear – frequently was very dangerous.

He was their patron , their patron saint .”

So Schlieker page 27. And on the real source of the conversion motif continued page 33:

“ The motif of the deer origins from the legend of St. Eustace venerated in the Roman church since about the 8^th century. According to this legend about the year 110 AD, at the time of emperor Trajan, the heathen Roman general Placidus turned to Christendom after the encounter with a stag [whose picture of Christ Crucified ‘addressed him: Placidus, why do you pursue me who wants your salvation?’, so Meyers, op cit., V, 941] …

Already in the myths of antiquity a deer’s antlers were deemed

a symbol of a supranatural power .

After his baptism Placidus received the name Eustace … As patron of the hunt he carried weight in France … It can only be speculated why this legend of Eustace was transferred to Hubert. For once it might be a confusion since in old calendars the namesday of Eustace occasionally is listed at the beginning of the month of November, although the saint’s actual feast day is celebrated September 20. But supposedly the nobility in France will have furthered the transfer since in the 1^st version of the legend of the 12^th century (Vita III), in which he is mentioned as count palatinate, was of noble birth, too, and therefore one of them. Perhaps it also was the influence of the monks of Saint-Hubert Abbey who wanted to expand the already existing legend of St. Hubert impressively by the spectacular motif of the stag. ”

And this general need for patronage ultimately has not changed, irrespective of in any respect more comfortable circumstances today. So the Swiss collector of Frans Snyders’s game still-life Robels 84.I became a victim of his passion. During a battue for boars he was struck by even two bullets. Deadly.

All this then besides accompanied by superb rarity .

So not attained even by Schwerdt and missing in so many places more up to the British Museum as one otherwise having everything, see above, and – speaking volumes – indeed only since 1991 in the Rijksmuseum as downright Nibelung hoard of Netherlandish art. So then only made known here to Günther Schlieker during the decades-long preparation of his monumental Hubert documentation Die Verehrung des hl. Hubertus im Wandel der Jahrhunderte published 2016. Just as then, too,

with most comprehensively enlarged new edition of his Sint Hubertus Patroon van de Jagers in Woord en Beeld ( Antwerp [sic!] 1949 with now 361 pages & 173 illustrations as against but 158 pages & 34 illustrations in 1927!! ),

what documents said rarity the more significantly

as he documents Frederic de Marselaer in detail (pp. 174-181 & ill. 75-80)!

is documented by said 5-fold ( sic! ) stamping “Con. Gio. Mazzuchelli” below count’s coronet on the back. Represented in Jöcher with 21 titles, he reckons “among that Brescia patrician family whose name is represented perfectly in the field of Italian literature by several members” (ADB XXI, 150 on occasion of later count Alois of M.).

as emanation of quite a different self-conception, rooted in indeed its natural and thus, foremost, also intellectual ambience.

For while self-debunking with the “self-confident, high-handed”, in the self-portrait in Madrid even “almost provocatively dressed up” Dürer (1501; aforementioned quotations by Eduard Beaucamp and Henning Ritter resp. in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 4, 2002 and autumn 2003 resp.) the capped ( sic! ) hunter kneels left of the horse, which optically therefore stands between this and the stag, so with Bruyn in front of the horse set in the left part of the picture. In fact, on small clearing, in greatest imaginable nearness to the 10-pointer. And while Dürer’s knight in analogy straightens his back markedly, which is accentuated by the high-lying proud castle as well as the sleek face (according to Winkler, page 97, by the way the lineaments of Emperor Maximilian!) and hands bidding welcome after social graces, with de Bruyn he kneels adequately to the event slightly bent forward, by face and arms extended downwards

making the mystery of this moment experienceable .

And reverently put down before himself the befitting headgear. Suggestive, too, the addition of the swans, the snake, the Hound of St. Hubert.

The rich landscape pure nature. Accordingly then Wurzbach I, 217 f.:

“ … (Bruyn) is an excellent draughtsman, his heads are full of expression and truth, his costumes fantastically interesting and the abundance of his figures surprising. ”

The latter in the manner of van Leyden, “whose forms he had adopted so much that one is tempted to regard many of his original engravings as sheets after drawings (of this)” (Wurzbach, 1906). And Thieme-Becker V, 1911, 160:

“ the majority (of his sheets), however, after own invention – so the one here, too! – and herein de Br. shows himself as a most original artist (AKL XIV, 1996, 617: ingenious engraver), who continued skillfully the art language of Lucas van Leyden (Bredius at the same time recalls Hendrick Goltzius, too) still one century after his death … His very rich œuvre …

belongs to the most interesting of his period .

With sure chisel he has engraved a great many series of representations from the Scriptures in large size which one finds frequently glued into old Bibles. ”

Beside of such hard-to-preserve oversizes, also general susceptibility for wear as thesis sheets, the latter then also may be an additional reason for the scarcity of these works reproached by both Nagler and Wurzbach for a deficiency in chiaroscuro. What at least for the impression of present Hubert is not supported by any means. The landscape originating from Gillis van Coninxloo III (Antwerp 1544 – Amsterdam 1607) as repeatedly engraved by de Bruyn, of a differentiating chiaroscuro leading to the depth as after Bachmann (on occasion of the early work of van der Neer – “the forest itself, the interior of the wood” – , Oud Holland LXXXIX, 1975, p. 214/II, par. 2) so characteristic for the late Coninxloo only. This of quite substantial interest as Plietzsch points out that the engravers after Coninxloo with de Bruyn at the forefront had reproduced only the “landscapes from his first period or from the time of the transition to the second” (Plietzsch, op. cit., p. 27). So it is quite evident that already one hundred years ago

de Bruyn’s Hubert had remained unbeknown to Plietzsch, too.

Although as autonomous by no means to be attributed to said copy engravings after Coninxloo, so at a glance

(Plietzsch 14; “… while Coninxloo [as the greatest harbinger of seventeenth-century Dutch forest painting] was painting his revolutionary forest landscapes in Amsterdam”, so Stechow still 1968) and shows de Bruyn at the height of art. For this “amazing” (Stechow), “most significant” (Devisscher, seeing, however, rather Paul Bril instead of Coninxloo) wooded landscape by Coninxloo was considered by the old literature as together with the 1595 Wooded Landscape Ertz (1984) 16 by the elder Jan Brueghel in Milan as

downright model of a new , now natural wooded landscape .

And still in 1968 Stechow summed up after divers consideration “But even this is relegated to a minor position when compared with Coninxloo’s amazing Forest of 1598 in the Liechtenstein Gallery” (op. cit., p. 66).

That de Bruyn, turned backwards, thereby elevates Coninxloo’s deliberately and logically small and therefore marginally set hunters & deer to the subject proper and even redesignates it to the highest consecration should not be mistaken as irony. His objective was a different one, just as he then also suggestively replaced Coninxloo’s storks animating a marshy pond on the left as mythologically less momentous by swans as the birds of prophecy and removes their pool behind the stag on the right edge. Yet the ambience for his presentation should be dernier cri, indeed. By which he undoubtedly contrived a great success in fact. For still three hundred years later his landscape model is called in generally in the elucidation of its historical merit:

“ … (Coninxloo) presents himself as one of the most important representatives of the transition period in the history of Netherlandish landscape painting, which … leads over from the fantastic direction in the middle of the 16^th century to the plain near-natural landscape art of the 17^th century, and is at the same time one of the first who … transfers impulses from Belgium to Holland … In place of the landscape built up fantastically from rocks and mountains gradually another, far simpler one enters, indeed still arranged deliberately, but yet risen from the observation of the native nature. (Especially in some woodland pictures in Vienna with Liechtenstein.) The flatlike composition is replaced by an arrangement which results in a prospect developing evenly from front to back. At the same time the viewpoint, supposed very high in the early works, constantly moves down. At last C. succeeds in giving the whole landscape in his final pictures from 1604 a homogeneous hue and overcoming the schematic division in a brown foreground, a green middle distance, and a blue distance … Generally his art seems to have exerted an important influence on many Dutch landscapists, just as then also van Mander reports that since his appearance the representation of the trees in the works of his compatriots has changed essentially ”

(Zoege von Manteuffel in Thieme-Becker VII [1912], 302 ff., as taken over as generally unchanged valid still by Ertz in AKL XX [1998], 522 ff., too).

Therefore also in regard of this landscape aspect of Coninxloo de Bruyn’s Hubert is of quite essential evidence and Nagler (“no idea of chiaroscuro”) and Wurzbach (“all kept as in even lighting”) may have misinterpreted him in this respect. So by treatment of the motif and most topical native South Netherlandish woodland with ”Flemish vista“ de Bruyn provides his Hubert in contrast to Dürer with

the authenticity

par excellence. That is from every point of view

the saint’s native setting !

(“For his sheets of own invention created from c. 1603 onward B. takes over essential characteristics of the Flemish wood and panorama landscape, but sets the chief accent on the narrative of the picture”, AKL, op. cit.)

Seen from the rarer worm’s-eye view

at which Christian von Heusinger, curator em. of the Brunswick Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum famed for its Netherlanders, drew the attention on occasion of a visit. Therewith, indeed, creating that

“ general impression of great effect ”

Herwig Guratzsch emphasizes especially on occasion of the Lazarus pictures of Rembrandt and Fabritius following only later (see his Die Auferweckung des Lazarus in der ndl. Kunst von 1400 bis 1700, Kortrijk 1980, I, p. 159).

And therewith imparting by this artifice the singular scene beside its anyway almost matchless adequate size of 27½ × 18⅛ in (70 × 46 cm; sic!) an unrivalled ultimate visual effect. To then eventually

For the first time present here then with the full claim to its outstanding rarity, certainly also with the marks of its centuries, yet

as expressly documented by Schlieker. On the modern impact of Hubert see in addition to the latter also Heinz Brüll per subchapter Die Bedeutung der Hubertuslegende (Lindner commemorative vol. Et Multum et Multa, 1971, pp. 19 f.), E. Ueckermann, St. Hubertus – Legende und Wirklichkeit (unsere Jagd 11/96, pp. 26 f., with respect to the stag by the way with the remark “mostly with antlers of eight points”, with de Bruyn, Dürer, Reinhart there are ten, with Cort ten odd, for both the latter see below) and Peter Bußmann & Georg Haasis in Die Pirsch 23/96, pp. 108-111.

Offer no. 16,180 | price on application

“ Of Conducting the Hubert Feast ”

Hubert Day at St. Hubert ?

Aubry, Charles (France 1^st h. of the 19^th cent.). Une St. Hubert. Hubert’s Day. On the left lateral bordure in the shape of a sectional depiction of a 5-floor house along with a garret, in each story pointing to another detail of preparation. From get up over inspection of the arms up to the departure. Lithograph. (1837.) Inscribed: PL: 1. / Ch Aubry / Publié et imprimé par Ch Motte, Rue S^t. Honoré N^o. 290. à Paris, title as above, otherwise captions. 14⅜ × 10⅞ in (36.5 × 27.5 cm).

Not in Schlieker, Die Verehrung des hl. Hubertus im Wandel der Jahrhunderte, 2016. – Opening sheet of the ordinary edition in b/w (Schwerdt I, 47 f.) of the very rare of old (so qualified already in 1912 by Boerner CXII, 2296) Chasses Anciennes d’apres les Manuscrits des XIV & XV^e Siècles (Thiébaud 48) published by Motte as one of the two main works in which Aubry ( “known lithographer” , Thieme-Becker ) achieved “examplary effect in his genre by the old frame method, the so-called Troubadour style. In the late work he dispenses with this frame completely. 1822 professorship for painting at the Éc. R. de Cavalerie in Saumur. Designed especially hunting, genre and military sceneries in the manner of the Vernets, competing in that also with Victor Adam” (AKL V, 587, erroneously confounding – besides bibliographically incorrectly – the two titles l’Histoire de l’Equitation & Chasses anciennes as one. – With oval dry-stamp LITHOGRAPHE C. Motte A PARIS. – On slightly toned strong paper. – Isolated foxing stipples within the subject, somewhat more in three of the wide white margins up to slight foxing above. Small tidemark in the outermost edge below left.

Offer no. 14,000 | EUR 404. | export price EUR 384. (c. US$ 413.) + shipping

One of the Two Side Chapels
Consecrated to St. Hubert

Leuven – S^t James’s Church Louvain, Tabernacle in. Tabernacle de l’Église S^t Jacques a Louvain. The rich, high-rising Gothic tabernacle by Gabriel van den Bruyne (Leuven 1476/1500? – 1561) with its brass balustrade with the four evangelists. Before it priest with confirmation classes. Color lithograph by François Stroobant (Brussels 1819 – Elsene 1916). C. 1855. Inscribed: F. Stroobant del. et lith. / C. Muquardt éditeur. / Imp. Simonau & Toovey, Bruxelles., otherwise in French, German, and English as above. 13⅜ × 8¾ in (34 × 22.2 cm).

Boetticher II/2, 855. – “Belgian architectural painter … known by works and drawings to art history, especially of his homeland. Several drawings he has lithographed himself.” So the present one, too.

“ (Bruyne) created 1537 to 1539 the splendid tabernacle of Saint James’s Church in Louvain which is reproduced from the one by Matthieu de Layens in St. Peter’s Church there. The artist received for it the sum of 250 Florin., 20 Sol. ”

(Hans Vollmer, Thieme-Becker V [1911], p. 160).

One of the two side-chapels of the originally Romanesque church, rebuilt in Gothic style after almost complete destruction by supposedly lightning, by the way – not in Schlieker, Die Verehrung des hl. Hubertus im Wandel der Jahrhunderte, 2016 – consecrated to St. Hubert, while the “Devil’s Bell”, according to the legend being not baptised and therefore hanging on the outside of the tower, reckons among the Seven Wonders of Louvain.

Offer no. 15,512 | EUR 178. (c. US$ 191.) + shipping

Dug out
on the Completion of Hubertusburg Castle

Ridinger, Johann Elias (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). This very rare white badger which was speckled with yellow reddish and dark chestnut spots has been dug out and hounded in the park at S^t. Hubertusburg (near Leipsic) the 5^th 9bris in the year of 1724. Etching with engraving by Martin Elias Ridinger (1731 Augsburg 1780). (1763.) Inscribed: Joh. El. Ridinger inv. del. et exc. Aug. Vind. / Mart. El. Ridinger sculpsit., otherwise in German as before. 14 × 10⅜ in (35.4 × 26.3 cm).

Thienemann & Schwarz 316; Reich auf Biehla Collection 71; publications of the ridinger gallery niemeyer 20, no. 54 with ills. – Sheet 74 of the only posthumously completed set of the Most Wondrous Deer and other Peculiar Animals and dedicated by the Ridingers to that historical occasion by which

(“A famous name Hubertusburg obtained by the peace made there at Febr. 15, 1763 …”, Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4^th ed., VIII, 752/I.).

Zoological badger rarity as together one of Ridinger’s only two own Saxon motifs. “Color variations generally are very rare with the badger,

yet least often that of white color ”

(Wilhelm von Tessin on occasion of the shooting of such one near Tübingen 1836 per Strange Subspecies of the Badger red-hot in Allgemeine Forst- und Jagd-Zeitung with reference to Jester, Über die kleine Jagd, pt. 5, 1800, who documents an earlier one dug out and hunted in East Prussia about 1770. In context with the white Hubert stag yet downright trouvaillesque. – The drawing, black chalk heightened with white on bluish paper, in the Ridinger appendix of Weigel’s 1869 catalog of the bequeathed drawings per lot 380.

Marvelous impression rich in contrast and a warm tone on strong laid paper. On the back marginal tape around from previous framing and a corresponding light streak on the front in the 2.8-5.1 cm wide white margin. Small backed tear lower left.

Offer no. 13,222 | EUR 654. | export price EUR 621. (c. US$ 668.) + shipping

Facsimile edition in the original size and the original colors. Facsimile & commentary volume (by Dagmar Thoss together with German translation from the oldest illuminated manuscript of 1379 Fr. 12399 of the Biblioth. Nat., Paris, by Max Haehn, 119 pp., 5 ills.). 1989. Gilt orig. light brown leather with 6 ornamental raised bands, filet and acanthus wave rank on both boards and rich design of the back with pomegranates enclosed by acanthus leaves and stylized tulip together with title-stamping on red ground and colored marbled fly-leaves together with library mark of the Bibliothèque Royale, except for the leather marbling and the gilt edges all corresponding to the orig. binding of the 18^th century, however, here faithfully untrimmed only as usual for manuscripts, & orig. cloth in orig. cloth slipcase with back-plate.

CODICES SELECTI XCI. – No. 236/975 numbered copies of the German-language set beside 1650 for the French and 375 for the Spanish market plus 40 unnumbered author’s copies each as limited world edition.

The latest of in total nine illuminated manuscripts created for Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy (1396-1467), of the

oldest French book on the hunt ,

with its high quality the pendant depictions of red deer & wild boar as symbols of light and darkness, represented in the antler-charmingly arranged picture of the

Written as textbook by a connoisseur of degree, who had still hunted with Charles IV (d. 1328) and “thus only of high age, as several of his contemporaries and compeers, had exchanged the sword with the pen”. And whose own family hunts received artistic consecration still 600 years later as Les Chasses de Ferrières. While exactly 600 years later the Château de Ferrières, then already “splendid estate” of the Rothschilds, became witness of Franco-German past. From Sep. 19 to Oct. 6, 1870, it served as headquarter for the King of Prussia and “here Sep. 19 and 20, 1870, fruitless peace talks between count Bismarck and Jules Favre took place” (Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4^th ed., VI [1889], 163/II).

The facsimilation ends with the textbook on whose last page – common to all manuscripts – the author’s Songe de pestilence follows (Ms. 10,219). It served as model to Gaston de Phébus’ later textbook which, however, became much more famous and was printed for the first time in 1486.

Stylistically the miniatures are to be assigned to the Master of the Girart de Roussillon (= Master of the Chronicle of Jerusalem) and stand out by open, painterly brush-work, richly shaded coloring as well as spacious landscape design including illusionary effects.

Of the Girart master several manuscripts worked for Philipp are known.

“ (His) workshop was of great importance for Flemish book painting in the mid of the 15^th century; in it the most precious illuminated manuscripts of these years were created. ”

And thus quite fitting into the setting of Philip’s collections who was

“ an enthusiastic supporter of art and science and owner of one of the most important collections of manuscripts in his time into which he wanted to include only

extraordinarily beautiful works

… it was considered as ‘the best-equipped of Christianity’ with which that of the French king could not rival anymore ”

(Stange & Jerchel in Löffler-Kirchner, Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens, III [1937], 11).

For you now, however, the opportunity to acquire one of its show-pieces as

sumptuously beautiful facsimile

for your own library, joining history of the hunt & optics. – As good as new.

Offer no. 15,855 | EUR 980. | export price EUR 931. (c. US$ 1001.) + shipping

– – The same. – No. 386/975 copies as above. – Particularly frontcover & spine of the slipcase dirt-stained, otherwise almost as new.

Offer no. 15,861 | EUR 790. | export price EUR 751. (c. US$ 807.) + shipping

Franconian St. Hubert in Rome

Reinhart, Johann Christian (Hof 1761 – Rome 1847). The Landscape with Saint Hubert. Etching. Inscribed on stone lower right in the subject “R (ligated JR?) / 1811.” & left below the subject J. C. Reinhart inv. et fec. Romæ 1810 (sic!). 8⅛ × 10⅝ in (20.7 × 26.9 cm).

Schlieker, Die Verehrung des hl. Hubertus im Wandel der Jahrhunderte, 2016, ills. 29/78 (this copy). – Not among the 172 illustrations of the – as against the first edition of 1927 – richly enlarged second one of 1949 of Huyghebaert’s Sint Hubertus Patroon van de Jagers in Woord en Beeld.

Andresen-Feuchtmayer 123, II (of III); Nagler, Monogramists, IV, 3507 (as “R”), 1; the same, Künstler-Lex., 50. – Plate 1 of the 6-sheet set of landscapes dated in the lower margin with 1805, 1810 & 1815, “one of which with the legend of Saint Hubert” (Nagler 50-55; Weigel, Art Stock Cat., IV [1837], 5327 [impressions on toned paper]). – One of the few plates in the œuvre with additional monogram:

“ Most plates bear the name of the artist, only few the letter R and C.R. With R (5) are inscribed: 1) The Landscape with Saint Hubert, 1811. … ” (Nagler).

THE STAGE-LIKE COMPOSED RICH SUBJECT – the saint, however, in Dürer-German manner with the plume hat kept on! – in very fine impression with margins of 0.3 (below) to 0.8 cm all round on toned vélin. – Browning on the back along with two faint tidemarks at the edge, the former almost only perceivable a little on the front lower right in the white margin, of the tidemarks just the left one and that only barely.

“ R.s early development in Germany, auspiciously directed by Klengel, fully unfolded in Meiningen, shows an

enormous freshness and freedom of perception of nature ,

especially in drawing and etching. Here he belongs to the most important discoverers of the intimate, closely seen landscape, to the liberators of a new real vision from the fetters of Dutch tradition in Germany. This refreshing originality of observation still lasts in the first Roman time … indeed only there his liveliest animal etchings were created which place him at the side of the revivers of animal depiction … and point far into the 19^th century. Also his early pastoral scenes in Rome with their beautiful fusion of naturalism and bold spaciousness are aglow with the powerful experience of nature at Meiningen … ”

(Thieme-Becker XXVIII [1934], p. 126, and Richard Muther in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [XXVIII, 1889, p. 75]) resp.

Offer no. 15,176 | EUR 790. | export price EUR 751. (c. US$ 807.) + shipping

Hubert Spa

C. Spiegel’s Hotel at the entrance of the Bode Valley below Roßtrappe near Thale in the Harz Mountains. Garden view in front of the fine mountain scenery with numerous, partly still promenading guests, some of which studying the list of beverages. While the ladies drink their coffee the gentlemen have wine throughout. On the left hunter with hound. Colored lithograph. C. 1850. 11 × 12⅝ in (27.9 × 32.1 cm).

Schlieker, Die Verehrung des hl. Hubertus im Wandel der Jahrhunderte, 2016, full-page ills. 29/216 (this copy). – With the address of the Ducal Court, Stone, and Letterpress Printers at Ballenstedt. – A very rare leaf, worthy of acquisition in spite of general time marks as the imperfections (creasing, light foxing, the right margin even quite strong, and with tidemark running into the picture) appear in the picture itself only minimally. Otherwise wide-margined and of fresh spring-like colors.

Offer no. 12,579 | EUR 404. | export price EUR 384. (c. US$ 413.) + shipping

2 sheet. Mezzotints for Gabriel Spitzel (also Spizel, 1697 Augsburg 1760, friend of Johann Elias’). Inscribed: Ioh. Elias Ridinger delin. / Gabriel Spizel excud. A.V. 19½-19⅝ × 14¼-14⅜ in (49.6-49.8 × 36.3-36.5 cm).

Neither in Thienemann (1856), Schwarz (1910) & Wend, Ergänzungen zu den Œuvreverzeichnissen der Druckgrafik, I, 1 (1975) nor in the large stocks of Weigel (1838/57), Coppenrath (1889/90), Helbing (1900) or the rich collections of Schwerdt (1928), Faber-Castell (1958) inclusive of the 23-sheet stock “Engravings not known to Thienemann and Schwarz” there (in 14 lots). Also not in the current further Ridinger collections of quality present here. In this scope thus here not provable.

By subject and size closely related to items Th. 1110 & (only Schwarz) 1448 with their variants 1113/14, in literature and collection catalogs here not traceable

Huntress rarissima

from the zenith of the veneration of Diana for Sigrid Schwenk lasting from about 1680 till 1850:

“ Still for the kings and princes who ordered the (baroque) palaces, as for the artists who decorated them

Diana obviously was the incarnation of the hunt ,

the goddess which protected huntsmen and chased game equally. But sometime she had to make off … (and is) practically without any importance in the scope of today’s hunting. That this was not always so, that the goddess taken over from antiquity once was

at the center of German hunting

— not only with the nobility , but also with professional hunters and foresters —

we only know from new researches during the past ten years. … What high importance was attached to Diana as protectoress of the hunt, the hunter and the game particularly in the circles of the professional huntsmen and foresters (what Dieter Stahmann in Weidgerecht und Nachhaltig, 2008, 77, traces back to the then classical education of the latters), can be read especially well in an apprentice’s indentures Joseph Reichsgraf von und zu Arco had issued for a hunter righteous to stag and wood on July 23, 1792 ”

( Sigrid Schwenk ,
Diana – Ein Nachruf auf die fast vergessene Göttin der Jagd ,
in Blüchel , Die Jagd , 1996 , vol. I , pages 210-215 ) .

Of quite even fine, brown-black velvet print quality full of fine chiaroscuro, the charming impact of the images – sitting in dreamy attitude here, in active position there – finally is not touched by the traces of age inescapably peculiar to the old mezzotints. Trimmed to platemark, on the left to the edge of the image, the sheets are mounted at the four corners as well as on both sides at the centerfold slightly strained-fissured by light bruise. Also else here and there light traces of age and quite weak touch of fox-spots practically noticeable in the white text field only.

„ The mezzotints – Thienemann generally stated already 140 years ago – are almost not to be obtained in the trade anymore … (A)ll produced by and after Joh. El. Ridinger … (are) that rare that they can be found almost only in some public excellent print rooms. I found most of the described ones – thus not the present ones! – only in the famous Dresden cabinet “

( pages VIII & 270 ) .

For only editions of about “50 or 60 clean impression(s)” were practicable for the expert and theorist Joachim von Sandrart. Having given his “Teutsche Akademie” (1675) to the apprentice doubtless was the decisive, lasting merit of the otherwise so meagre master Resch in Ulm. “(A)fterwards, however, the image grinds off soon”.

With the publisher / engraver (?) Spizel we finally meet that friend of the master who had established the connection to Wolf Baron (so, contrary to Kilian/Thienemann, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie) von Metternich in Regensburg, where Ridinger then spent his “three decisive years pure and simple … The ‘ad vivum pinxit’ which could stand over all of his painting and is determining for their genius finds the first and at once very far-reaching pre-requisites here” (Wolf Stubbe, Johann Elias Ridinger, 1966, pp. 6 f.).

Offer no. 28,406 | price on application

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