Julius GOLTZIUS: A soldier bids farewell to his wife - ca. 1560 /1595
Price: € 2000
Engraving, 165 x 280 mm. Hollstein 49.
First plate in a series of four plates illustrating puns on the relationship between husbands and wives.
Very fine impression printed on laid watermarked paper (watermark: gothic P topped with a flower).
Three tiny repaired tears in the bottom margin, otherwise in very good condition. Small margins (sheet: 184 x 293 mm).
Rare.
“In the various plates [in the series], the women complain specifically about the suffering caused to them by their husbands. In this engraving, the wife complains that she is suffering enormously because the soldier has to leave as soon as the "Sturmklock" (tocsin) sounds. It is not impossible that this series of engravings with German inscriptions was commissioned from Julius Goltzius through Christophe Plantin, who is known to have regularly negotiated prints with engravers for third parties. In 1586, for example, Julius Goltzius also worked through Plantin for the German publisher Hans Gundlach.” (Jaco Rutgers, Een Rijke Traditie, p. 25, translated by us).
The other plates of the series are: Hennentaster [The Hen Groper], Spinnende vrouw met haar echtgenoot [Woman Spinning with Her Husband], Veelvraat en Drinkeboer [A Drinker and a Glutton].
Reference: Susan Anderson, Erik Ariëns Kappers, Britta Bode, Franziska Gottwald, Jaco Rutgers, Leonore van Sloten, Jaap van der Veen, David de Witt: Een Rijke Traditie - Twee Eeuwen Nederlandse Prentkunst uit Privébezit, 2015, cat. no. 11.