Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). In manus tuas com(m)endo Spiritum meum et hæc dicens expiravit. Luc. 23. The hour of Good Friday darkened by clouds of Christ at the cross before broadly situated Temple Mount with the Wailing Wall. Left of the cross John supporting the collapsing Mary, lying at the foot of it Magdalen. Mezzotint by Johann Jacob Ridinger (1736 Augsburg 1784). Inscribed: I. N. R. I. at the head of the cross / Ioh. Iacob Ridinger sculps. / I. El. Ridinger excud. Aug. Vind., otherwise as above. 24⅞ × 17¾ in (63.3 × 45.1 cm).

Provenance: Alexander Count of Faber-Castell (1866-1928), his Ridinger sale 1958, lot no. 167; Radulf Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen (1922-2004).

Schwarz 1492 with ills. II, plate XLII; Wend, Ergänzungen zu den Œuvreverzeichnissen der Druckgrafik, I/1 (1975), 155 (variant in writing); Faber-Castell 167; Niemeyer, Ridinger Erlebnisse 1698-2020, 2021, p. 284.

Not in Thienemann (1856), Stillfried (1876), Weigel, Art Stock Catalog, division I-XXVIII (1838/57; more than 1000 R. sheets of the etched/engraved work), Silesian Ridinger Collection at Boerner (1885; “of greatest richness … many rarities”), Coppenrath Collection (1889/90), Reich auf Biehla Collection (1894; “Of all [R. collections on the market] since long time there is none standing comparison even approximately with the present one in respect of completeness and quality … especially the rarities and undescribed sheets present in great number”, Gg. Hamminger (1895) , Helbing XXXIV (Arbeiten von J. E. und M. E. Ridinger, 1554 items, 1900), Rosenthal, Ridinger list 126 (1940).

Fine black impression determined by contrast-rich chiaroscuro with typographic watermark (WANGEN?) with margins running around 1.5-2 cm wide, fox-spotted on three sides, though generally little perceptibly slightly spotted, and doubled. The previously smoothed out centerfold still slightly visible.

The extraordinarily rare , large-sized sheet from the sequence of the nine crucifixions, besides the present one provable here only in the copy Schwarz (von Gutmann Collection, 1910) as well as a variant traded here in the ’90s.

Offer no. 14,862 | price on application