Print Description
Medium: Etching on iron plate on hand laid (verge) paper. Watermark: unclear.
Sheet size: 38 x 21.1 cm (14.96 x 8.31 inch). Image size: 37 x 20.2 cm. (14.57 x 7.95 inch).
Condition: very good, given age. Some remains of paper tape on rear from attachment. Litht creasing. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully.
5 GERMAN LANDSKNECHTEN-SOLDIERS-MUSIC-DRUM-FLUTE | EXPO-GERMAN
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Hopfers signed the majority of their prints with a device resembling a fir-cone, the emblem of Augsburg. Many of their iron plates were reprinted at least twice: 230 plates were reissued, with numbers added, in the seventeenth century by David Funck (1642-1709) at Nuremberg, part of ‘Oparae Hopferianae’ and in 1802 ninety-two plates were published by C.Wilhelm Silberburg at Frankfurt (British Museum, inv. nos. 1940,0810.20(1/92)), part of ‘Opera Hopferiana’. The existence of certain numbered impressions on good sixteenth-century paper has also been noted (see T. Falk in Hollstein, p. 5). The paper on this impression appears to be 16th.c.
Reference: Bartsch 66; Hollstein 74 I (of III).
Provenance: Collection marks: AB (Andreas Boerner, c. 1860; Lugt 68), vD in double circle (Baron H.A. von Derschau (-1824): Lugt 2510), Kupferstichsammlung der Königl. Museen (Lugt 1606), Tilgungs Stempel K.K.C. (Staatliche Museen; Lugt 2398).
Biography engraver: Daniel Hopfer (1471-1536) was the son of the painter Bartholomäus Hopfer of Kaufbeuren in Swabia, Daniel became a citizen of Augsburg in 1493 and is recorded as a master painter in the same year. Worked as an armourer in Augsburg. He was the earliest artist to adapt the practice of etching on iron to printmaking and to make a significant profession out of it. He produced 145 etchings and his sons, Hieronymus (c.1500-63) and Lambert (active c. 1525-50), continued the family reputation as etchers for a generation in Augsburg and Nuremberg. Daniel also designed a few woodcuts, chiefly ornamental borders for book illustrations (Hollstein, 146-155). In 1524 the Emperor Charles V conferred on Hopfer a coat of arms for his “true accomplishments in the service of the Emperor and Empire” (Eyssen, p. 37). He was an active supporter of the Reformation. Source: British Museum.
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