Wednesday 27 January 2016

"Unknown engraver" is an (unknown) Sadeler engraving after Hans von Aachen

Babuino, from Italy, sells on 4 February an "Unknown engraver, 17th century" engraving of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, estimated at 80 to 120 Euro.

It looks to be an engraving by Jan Sadeler (One or Two?). The bottom right has the inscription Jns. Sad. excud. I can't find another example of this engraving, which is unusual (though engravings are not that easy to look for).

Strange enough, I can find at least three copies of another engraving (in reverse) of the same painting. The original is by Hans von Aachen, and the engravings by Jansz. Muller from ca. 1600 can be found in the Met, in the Bijlokemuseum in Ghent, and in the Rijksmuseum (Rijksmuseum example pictured). This version and the one for sale have the same text at the bottom, even though the images are reversed. No idea if the painting also bears that text, not on the versions I could find. Even more bizarre, there are versions of the painting oriented both sides as well!

There are some other engravings of the martyrdom of Sebastian by members of the Sadeler family, but this image is not among the one I could find online. The RKD doesn't list it either.

So it seems to be a rare engraving, by one of the best and most well-known engravers or his period. Should be worth more than the estimate, in that case!

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