1606 THOMAS DE LEU Antique Copper plate engraving-AUTHENTIC-Superb Condition

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1606 THOMAS DE LEU Antique Copper plate engraving-AUTHENTIC-Superb Condition:
$115.00

Superb Antique Engraving from THOMAS De LEU, for Trophaeum vitae solitaria, c.1606 Paris.Condition: Very Good condition for its age, ink is fresh and dark, little signs of age, extremely well preserved state. This prints was originally published in 1594 by Joannes and Raphael Sadeler after scenes designed by the famous Flemish artist Maarten de Vos, who was an important and influential artist in the pre-Rubens period.
Maarten de Vos (1532-1603) was a prodigious Flemish draftsman whose alluring Mannerist designs were engraved by the hundreds in Northern Europe. Once engraved, these drawings traveled throughout the Spanish empire, serving as models for very many works of art. At the end of the 16th century Maarten de Vos produced more than a hundred drawings of \"anchorites\", men and women who chose to withdraw from society in order to lead a life focused on prayer, penance, and religious study. These drawings must have been immensely popular in their day, as they were quickly engraved in Antwerp and in Venice by three of the leading engravers of the time; Johan Sadeler I, Raphael Sadeler I, and Adriaen Collaert. These engravings were then engraved again, this time in reverse, and published in Paris by Thomas de Leu, Jean le Clerc IV, and Jacques Honervogt early in the 17th century.
Thomas de Leu was a Dutch engraver who started under the influence of Wierix and moved to Paris in 1576. He is regarded as one of the greatest portrait engravers of his time.
Jean le Clerc IV was an engraver and publisher that worked at a workshop located in Paris, rue Saint Jean de Letran, under the sign of the Royal Salamander. It was there that he published the engravings of the anchorites in the early 17th century in a series of volumes which bore the same titles as the ones in which the Sadelers published their own renditions of the designs invented by Maarten de Vos. One of these volumes was the Trophaeum Vita Solitariae, another was the Solitudo Sive Vitae Partrum Eremicolarum and a third was the Monumenta Anachoretarum, also referred to as Sylvae Sacrae. Size: 26,5cm x 19cmStudy carefully the pictures to see all details of this beautiful engraving.

Thomas de Leu or Leeuw or Le Leup (1560–1612) was a French engraver of Flemish origin. He began his career in Antwerp, influenced first of all by Wierix. He worked mostly in Paris, starting from 1576, at the atelier of Jean Rabel. He was one of the most important engravers of portraits of his time. He was the son-in-law of Antoine Charon, one of the principal painters of the Second School of Fontainebleau, and, thereby, brother-in-law of the engravers en taille douce Léonard Gaultier and Jaspar Isaac. He was also the father-in-law of Claude Vignon.

As one of the most important engravers of his time, de Leu\'s pieces are highly sought after. Some of his more famous subjects include Claude de Sainctes, Jacques of Savoy, several plants for Mattias de Lobel\'s Plantarum Seu Stirpium Icones, Sir Francis Drake, and, interestingly enough, himself.

Of the engravings from the period, the plate for his self-portrait is by far the most sought-after, as only a few prints of the portrait exist, likely given as gifts to family members and close friends originally, and the existence of the plate has apparently never been acknowledged. Many enthusiasts of sixteenth-century engraving have speculated as to where the plate is, and in such circles questions of its location/ownership can go on for hours, generating wild conspiracy stories and even hypotheses about now-unknown printing. (source: wikipedia)I DO NOT SELL REPRODUCTION, ALL MY ENGRAVINGS ARE GUARANTEE AUTHENTIC OR MONEY BACK.Worlwide shipping: YESCombined shipping: YES