Woman contemplating a Skull

Details

ANDREA ANDREANI (CIRCA 1558–1629) AFTER ALESSANDRO CASOLANI (1552-1606)
Woman contemplating a Skull
chiaroscuro woodcut printed from six blocks in black and five tones of grey, 1591, on laid paper, watermark Eagle in a Circle (Takahatake 23; Briquet 208, Pisa 1575-79), a fine, early impression of Takahatake's second, final state, trimmed to the borderline, lacking the dedication text below, window-mounted, some minor thin spots at the corners, traces of old adhesive along the sheet edges verso, otherwise in very good condition
Block & Sheet 289 x 214 mm.

Provenance

Friedrich Quiring (b. 1886), Eberswalde, Germany (Lugt 1041b).

Literature

Bartsch 14; Gnann 206;
N. Takahatake, The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, 2018, pp. 247-249, no. 107.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Brought to you by

Tim Schmelcher

tschmelcher@christies.com +44 20 7389 2268

Lot Essay

This chiaroscuro woodcut was published in 1591, alongside four others, during the collaboration in Siena between the printmaker and the painter Alessandro Casolani, leading to a genuine friendship between the two. For this meditative subject, exploring the themes of vanitas and memento mori, Andreani used five blocks for subtle tonal variation (previously miscounted due to the chromatic similarity of the inks) and two line blocks, in order to give a sharper and more prominent relief to the woman in the foreground. According to Gabbarelli (in J. Takahatake 2018), the best impressions are printed on paper with the watermark Eagle in a Circle, such as the present impression.

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