Lot Essay
As pointed out by Janson (loc.cit.) followed by Wallen (loc.cit.), in this emblematic painting Hemessen harks back to German 16th Century prints that depict a dead or dying infant with a skull. The earliest dated example of such a print is an engraving by Barthel Beham of 1525 (Holl. no...). These prints in turn derive from an earlier Italian tradition, first represented in a medal of 1458 by Giovanni Boldu (Janson, loc.cit. pl. 6).
The motto Nasse Morimur which could be translated as 'as we are born, we die', derives from Marcus Manilius' Astronomica, the Roman poet who lived in the first century A.C. It appears earlier in a woodcut of 1537 by Cornelis Anthonisz. (see C.H. Timmers, Christelijke Symboliek en Ikonografie, 19.., fig. 79) and also in a painting by Georg Pencz, which was offered at Sotheby's London, 24 March 1951, lot 107. As pointed out by Wallen (loc.cit.) the present lot is to be dated in the artist's late years and may be compared with the painting "A Musician and his Muse" from 1554, now in the Mauritshuis.
An early variant depicting the infant in an interior is in the collection of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House
See colour illustration
The motto Nasse Morimur which could be translated as 'as we are born, we die', derives from Marcus Manilius' Astronomica, the Roman poet who lived in the first century A.C. It appears earlier in a woodcut of 1537 by Cornelis Anthonisz. (see C.H. Timmers, Christelijke Symboliek en Ikonografie, 19.., fig. 79) and also in a painting by Georg Pencz, which was offered at Sotheby's London, 24 March 1951, lot 107. As pointed out by Wallen (loc.cit.) the present lot is to be dated in the artist's late years and may be compared with the painting "A Musician and his Muse" from 1554, now in the Mauritshuis.
An early variant depicting the infant in an interior is in the collection of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House
See colour illustration