| Method | Woodcut |
| Artist | Jost Amman |
| Published | [Sigmund Feyrabend, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1599] |
| Dimensions | Image 122 x 105 mm, Sheet 145 x 132 mm |
| Notes |
A late sixteenth century woodcut memento mori emblem, from a collection of designs by Jost Amman published as a Kunstbüchlin (art booklet). The scene shows an old woman, gaunt and seated in a chair, staring open mouthed at the fatal dart of a skeletal Death, who has crept around the side of her pillowed chair. The woman, dressed in a long sleeved floor length bed robe and nightcap, is surprised by the arrival of her guest, but shows little sign of alarm, a reminder to the viewer that Death is the ultimate balm for the ailments of age. This woodcut was the tenth and final image in a series Amman produced representing the passage of life from childhood to old age. A similar pair of ten cuts showed the stages of life of a male counterpart. On the verso, another woodcut shows a well-dressed, moustachioed figure on an ornately caparisoned horse, perhaps an elector count, noble, or wealthy merchant. Jost Amman's Kunstbüchlin was a series of 292 woodcut emblems, produced to assist artists and publishers and provide templates for popular themes. The book contained illustrations of classical mythology and history, putti in various attitudes, virtues and vices, courtly life, biblical figures, representations of the planets and elements, figures of regnal and ecclesiastical authority, turks heads, pikemen, swordsmen, and knightly orders, as well as a large series of shield blanks and armorials. Jost Amman (1539-1591) was a Swiss-German printmaker and publisher, born in Zurich, but working for the majority of his life in Nuremberg, where he was apprenticed to the woodcut artist Virgil Solis. One of the most prolific woodcut artists of the sixteenth century, Amman is believed to have drawn and cut over 1500 prints. He is particularly celebrated for his numerous biblical prints, and a series of Bavarian topographical views commissioned by the cartographer and mathematician Philipp Apian. Condition: Minor creasing and foxing to margins. Old adhesive tape on verso. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £450.00 |
| Stock ID | 52589 |