Bellona Leading the Armies of the Emperor Against the Turks (1st State), 1600

Engraving after Bartholomeus Spranger (Antwerp1546-1611 Prague)

515 x 368 mm; 27 3/4 x 20 inches

References:

Bartsch 87

Hollstein 50-I

Notes:

1. A very fine impression of the 1st State (before later publishers’ addresses) of this major and extremely rare work, executed on two sheets of copper and then joined at the center of the composition.

2. Jan Harmensz Muller at first followed closely in the footsteps of Hendrik Goltzius for whom he worked until about 1589, but then gradually evolved into Goltzius’ chief rival. Most of Muller’s engraved works were after either Cornelisz van Haarlem or Bartholomeus Spranger.

3. The subject of this engraving, Bellona Leading the Armies of Emperor Against the Turks, had been         preceded by another of Muller’s major engravings, The Arts in Flight from the Barbarians (ref. Bartsch 76, Hollstein 72, the New Hollstein 76). This earlier engraving was already an indictment of the lack of civilization of the Turks who had conquered the Greeks. Muller’s Bellona and The Arts in Flight are among the major prints produced by Netherlandish mannierism. In this present work, Bellona leads not only the Emperor’s armies but also civilization itself against the onslaught of the barbarians (see: Larry Silver "Imitation & Emulation: Goltzius as Evolutionary Reproductive Engraver" in Graven Images: The Rise of Professional Printmakers in Antwerp and Haarlem 1540-1640, Northwestern University, 1993: pages 86 and 87).