Daniel Hopfer / David Funck - Saint Paul Preaching Under a Baldachin - 1684

BEAUTIFUL ANTIQUE ENGRAVING by Daniel Hopfer (1470-1536), signed on the lower margin with his initials, the characteristic monogram D. H. and a small pine cone-shaped emblem, symbol of the coat of arms of the city of Augsburg where he worked and lived. The print is in excellent condition with wide and intact margins (sheet size H 254 x W 178 mm or 10.1 by 7.1 inches), almost free from defects, has no holes or cuts, and it is printed on laid paper with chain lines. The same print is in the collection of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek in Germany (Accession Number: DHopfer AB 3.40), Art Institute of Chicago (Accession Number: 1947.544) and in the British Museum in London (Accession Number: 1845,0809.1328). PLEASE NOTE: the buyer will also receive a Certificate of Authenticity (COA). This fine engraving created with meticulous detail and great precision shows "Saint Paul Preaching Under a Baldachin", inscribed with passages from Acts 10 and Letter to the Romans 15 and 8 at lower and upper edge, text in German.

Daniel Hopfer was the first artist to etch on iron (circa 1493) to make prints and before the famous Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Hopfer was a brilliant innovator in the field of etching, was the most prolific and creative among the Augsburg etchers and used brush effects to create wash-like shading. He also worked in woodcut. Although his etchings were widely ignored by art historians for years, more recent scholarship is crediting him and his work with "single-handedly establishing the salability of etchings" and introducing the print publisher business model. Daniel Hopfer was initially trained as a gunsmith and etcher of armour, in 1497 Hopfer married Justina Grimm (d. ca. 1528), sister of the publisher and humanist Sigismund Grimm (active 1502-30). Daniel's sons Hieronymus Hopfer (1500-1563) and Lambert Hopfer (circa 1497-1535) worked with him. Daniel Hopfer produced more than 130 prints of various subjects, Hieronymus 77 and Lambert 34. They placed their initials somewhere within the design on almost all of their prints (D.H., I.H., L.H.), adding a small device which might be a pinecone, or a hop blossom, making a punning reference to the family name. David Funck (1642-1709) publisher and cartographer purchased around 200 iron plates from the Hopfer family, numbered them (now known as the Funck number) and reprinted the otherwise untouched plates under the title "Opera Hopferiana" in 1684 in Nuremberg (Christof Metzger, 2009). This rare iron engraving is an original of that edition and printed by David Funck (1642-1709) in 1684 with the number 93 added to the bottom left.

Title and Description: St Paul preaching; enthroned underneath a baldachin at centre, pointing to a passage in an open book; in tympanum above St Paul weaving; the congregation on either side. The illustration on laid paper with chain lines and slightly age toned is well engraved with intact margins, great contrast and definition (as shown in the photo), one of the best productions of German illustrators of the 1600s. Sheet size: H 254 x W 178 mm or 10.1 by 7.1 inches. The engraving is in good condition , there are NO cuts or holes or restorations, some imperfections in the white margins outside the illustration. No text on the back, an ancient collector's mark is visible. Beautiful detailed engraving drawn with great skill.

References: Hollstein / German engravings, etchings and woodcuts c.1400-1700 (48.I-II); Bartsch / Le Peintre graveur (VIII.484.42); Metzger 52 I/III; R.A. Koch, Early German Masters: Hans Brosamer, The Hopfers, Illustrated Bartsch, 17, New York 1981, p. 79-202; E. Eyssen, Daniel Hopfer von Kaufbeuren: Meister zu Augsburg 1493 bis 1536, Heidelberg 1904, S. 44; The Renaissance Print 1470-1550. David Landau and Peter Parchall. Yale University Press, 1994.

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