Mythological combat scene with Roman soldiers on horseback.
c 1560. Pen and brownish black ink on grayish-cream laid paper, 6 1/2 x 8 inches (165 x 175 mm), irregular hexagonal sheet with margins. Some archival repairs along the top sheet edge, scattered soiling, and an archivally repaired top-right corner. The condition issues are all consistent with age. A fine and balanced composition with nice primo pensiero (note the falling saber in graphite below the wounded figure's horse), and good ink saturation with little to no attenuation. This image may in some way be related to Virgil Solis's series based on Ovid's Four Ages.
Born in Nuremberg 1514, Virgil Solis (Nuremberg 1514 – Nuremberg 1562) was a member of a prolific family of German artists. His origins and training are unclear, but he became a draughtsman and printmaker in engraving, etching, and woodcut by 1539, and often signed himself as a painter, but no evidence of that career exists. Solis' early drawing style employed strong outlines and simple hatching and he aimed to produce popular, commercially successful prints on many subjects. The most notable aspect of Solis' work is his skillful absorption and re-interpretation of other artist's styles, particularly Albrecht Dürer, Peter Flötner, Sebald Beham, and many others of French, German, and Italian origin. Solis' woodcuts illustrating Ovid were especially influential, though partly borrowing from earlier illustrations by the French artist Bernard Salomon. Solis's best work relates to Classical Mythology, in particular a series based on Ovid's Metamorphoses.
– The Getty Museum.
Item number: 1212
Price: $3,500.00
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