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Lot Essay
`The private tears of Bartholomeus Spranger are made public by Aegidius Sadeler, who admired his art and his marriage; and dedicates the print to him with sincere affection. At Prague in the centennial year.’
The dedication below this famous engraving aptly describes the artist’s intent to create a double portrait commemorating Christina Müller and her husband, the Mannerist painter Bartholomeus Spranger, following her untimely death. A rich, allegorical meditation on mortality and the vagaries of time, Sadeler divides the print into two halves representing the realms of the living, and of the dead. The left side depicts the bereaved artist pointing towards a portrait of his wife on the right. Christina’s effigy is set against a shadowy sarcophagus, surrounded by symbols of death: a grinning skull held by a putto, who in turn stands on an overturned hour glass and is flanked by an upended, smoking torch. The cartouche above the portrait bears the epitaph 'Unjust death, why do you rob so much beauty? You hold true love in honour of the dead', whilst the inscription on the post below carries the lamentation 'The heart of her husband, who has not yet reached heaven, follows your soul. And even if he throws away his life, he would not receive you again'. On the right of the portrait, Minerva as the goddess of wisdom looks away in grief, while to the left a personification of Faith, bearing an open book and a crucifix, holds out the Christian hope of eternal life. These intimations of resurrection are repeated by the burning lamps on the sarcophagus, and the elaborate frame, crowned with upward pointing garlands.
In contrast to the relative restraint of the memorial to Christina, the left half of the engraving is filled with a phantasmagoria of figures. Spranger, who sorrowfully gazes at the viewer, is separated from his wife by the dramatic figures of Death, represented by the crouching skeleton, and the winged, scythe-bearing figure of Old Father Time. Death prepares to drive an arrow into Spranger’s heart, but hesitates, waiting upon Father Time, who holds an upturned hourglass, which is not yet empty. To the left of the artist, three women represent the visual arts: Sculpture, Architecture and Painting. Above them the winged figure of Fame bears trumpets and a banner with the words 'He lives by Divine Will and through his name', whilst a putto carries a wreath and a martyr’s palm. These figures symbolically speak of the vocation of the artist to continue to create art despite grief and in the face of ever-present mortality. Spranger leans with his arm on a pedestal inscribed with the words:
'What do you want before the appointed day? The time of death does not yet come, art will make you more famous'.
There has been some debate as to whether Sadeler was the sole designer of this engraving or whether Spranger himself might have designed this personal account of his grief. Sally Metzler notes that some of the figures bear striking resemblances to existing works by Spranger, most notably the portrait of Christina, which is very close to her portrait in Spranger’s epithaph to his father-in-law Nikolaus Müller, painted circa 1587-89 (Metzler, p. 123). She suggests that 'because so many of these motifs originated in readily available compositions, it is possible that Sadeler composed this engraving as a tribute to Spranger and his wife, as the inscription suggests. The two artists knew each other well, so Sadeler could easily have compiled this cornucopia of references to Spranger’s triumphs and tragedies, professional and personal'. (Metzler, p. 333)
The dedication below this famous engraving aptly describes the artist’s intent to create a double portrait commemorating Christina Müller and her husband, the Mannerist painter Bartholomeus Spranger, following her untimely death. A rich, allegorical meditation on mortality and the vagaries of time, Sadeler divides the print into two halves representing the realms of the living, and of the dead. The left side depicts the bereaved artist pointing towards a portrait of his wife on the right. Christina’s effigy is set against a shadowy sarcophagus, surrounded by symbols of death: a grinning skull held by a putto, who in turn stands on an overturned hour glass and is flanked by an upended, smoking torch. The cartouche above the portrait bears the epitaph 'Unjust death, why do you rob so much beauty? You hold true love in honour of the dead', whilst the inscription on the post below carries the lamentation 'The heart of her husband, who has not yet reached heaven, follows your soul. And even if he throws away his life, he would not receive you again'. On the right of the portrait, Minerva as the goddess of wisdom looks away in grief, while to the left a personification of Faith, bearing an open book and a crucifix, holds out the Christian hope of eternal life. These intimations of resurrection are repeated by the burning lamps on the sarcophagus, and the elaborate frame, crowned with upward pointing garlands.
In contrast to the relative restraint of the memorial to Christina, the left half of the engraving is filled with a phantasmagoria of figures. Spranger, who sorrowfully gazes at the viewer, is separated from his wife by the dramatic figures of Death, represented by the crouching skeleton, and the winged, scythe-bearing figure of Old Father Time. Death prepares to drive an arrow into Spranger’s heart, but hesitates, waiting upon Father Time, who holds an upturned hourglass, which is not yet empty. To the left of the artist, three women represent the visual arts: Sculpture, Architecture and Painting. Above them the winged figure of Fame bears trumpets and a banner with the words 'He lives by Divine Will and through his name', whilst a putto carries a wreath and a martyr’s palm. These figures symbolically speak of the vocation of the artist to continue to create art despite grief and in the face of ever-present mortality. Spranger leans with his arm on a pedestal inscribed with the words:
'What do you want before the appointed day? The time of death does not yet come, art will make you more famous'.
There has been some debate as to whether Sadeler was the sole designer of this engraving or whether Spranger himself might have designed this personal account of his grief. Sally Metzler notes that some of the figures bear striking resemblances to existing works by Spranger, most notably the portrait of Christina, which is very close to her portrait in Spranger’s epithaph to his father-in-law Nikolaus Müller, painted circa 1587-89 (Metzler, p. 123). She suggests that 'because so many of these motifs originated in readily available compositions, it is possible that Sadeler composed this engraving as a tribute to Spranger and his wife, as the inscription suggests. The two artists knew each other well, so Sadeler could easily have compiled this cornucopia of references to Spranger’s triumphs and tragedies, professional and personal'. (Metzler, p. 333)