Death as the grim reaper, turning its back. [Italy, 17th century].
Engraving with etching (161 x 113 mm., platemark 156 x 109 mm), only recorded state, on thick, unwatermarked laid paper, narrow margins; showing a blindfolded, skinny and muscular reaper scything in a field, seen from the back, with a circular motto in the sky, Superiorum permissu engraved at lower left, and a poem in two columns of nine lines each engraved below the image, on faint guidelines. Tipped to an archival mat. Fine condition. ***
A wonderful anonymous allegory of death, with echos of Brueghel. The depiction of death as a muscular farmer is unusual. Here, twisted in the action of harvesting, he turns his back to the viewer, who hopes to avoid the scythe of the blindfolded reaper. Around his waist is a band to which is fastened a decorated quiver filled with arrows and a bow. The ground around him has been cut; to the left awaits a field of tall grain; from its edge two flowers peek out poignantly. In the far right background is a village with church spire. Engraved in an oval shape is the motto Secat tenet / non videt te (he cuts, he holds, he sees you not).
The original verses below elaborate on the theme of Death’s blind relentlessness: whether gentle or pious, terrified of death or welcoming it, good or bad, it will come for you. It will level and annul all that exists, monarchies, empires, sublime geniuses.... Woe to those unprepared for the universal slaughter. (In si fecondo e raro / Campo dell' Vniverso, a si gran Messe’ / Intenta, non valore e non belleza / Morte pauenta o prezza. / Non sa che sia pieta, non dolce o' amaro / Ma sempre cieca senza pace o tregua / Il tutto tronca, e adegua / Cieco seca a tondo / Quant'ha di buono, o di maligno il Mondo / Ella le Monarchie gli Imperi e i Regni / Anulla, e a quel che spira / Sol ha’ la mira e i più sublimi ingegni / Tal han quasi per scherzo par che lassi / Poi co piu vili e bassi / A’ lor mal grado attira in un per sempre / In cosi stranie tempre / Guai se tu non provedi / Alla strage comun c'hor odi, e vedi.)
Art historians have noted the resemblance between the wall-like field of grain on the left, and Death’s posture, to the fields and reaper in Pieter van der Heyden’s ca. 1570 engraving of Summer after Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Other impressions are held by the Met, British Museum, the Wellcome Collection, and the Museum der Brotkultur (in Ulm).
Cf. Oliver Seifert, Kunst und Brot : hundert Meisterwerke aus dem Museum der Brotkultur (2005), pp. 18 and 218. Item #4501
Price: $4,200.00