Saint Bartholomew; Plate 6 from Christ, the Apostles, and St. Paul with the Creed.
Haarlem: c1590. Copperplate engraving on light-weight cream laid paper with an early 17th century "5-Point" foolscap watermark, 5 3/4 x 4 inches (142 x 102 mm), thread margins. In very good condition with minor surface soiling, consistent with age. Second state (of three) after the addition of the Arabic numeral in the lower left margin, but before the addition of the late publisher's address in the lower right margin. The image and Latin inscription remain identical to the first state, but an Arabic numeral matching the Roman numeral text (in this case a "6" placed in the lower-left corner of the text block) is added to facilitate binding the prints as a cohesive suite. A crisp, well-inked lifetime or early posthumous printing.
[Hollstein 39].
A note regarding the watermark:
Here is the fooldcap watermark variant most frequently seen in the first half of the 17th century. If the foolscap features a 5-pointed collar (seen here), it points directly to a Golden Age Dutch printing, often circulating around the 1620s–1650s (a period where publishers heavily printed from Haarlem workshops).
Plate number VI from his highly celebrated 14-part series titled Christ, the Apostles, and St. Paul with the Creed. The series structurally pairs each Apostle with a specific article of the Apostles' Creed, following a long-standing medieval tradition that each of the twelve disciples penned one clause of the statement of faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As indicated by the Roman numeral VI and the plate number 6 (visible in some states at the bottom left, though trimmed or faint here), St. Bartholomew is assigned the sixth article.
Item number: 2477
Price: $1,500.00
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