Live Auction 10404Old Master Prints
Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543) and Veit Specklin (active circa 1525-50)
Lot 50

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543) and Veit Specklin (active circa 1525-50)

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Closed9 December 2015

Price Realised

GBP 1,250

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Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543) and Veit Specklin (active circa 1525-50)
Erasmus of Rotterdam
woodcut, circa 1538, on laid paper, a good impression, with small margins, a few minor repairs towards the sheet edges; with an engraved copy of same subject in reverse (Hollstein 148), 1630-70, a very good impression, published by Frans van den Wyngaerde, with narrow to small margins above and below, trimmed on the platemark at left and right, generally in good condition, laid down at the sheet edges onto card mounts
B. 286 x 148 mm., S. 295 x 158 mm.
P. 294 x 162 mm., S. 308 x 162 mm.
(2)

Specialist note

This exquisitely cut block was executed by Veit Specklin after the design by Holbein.
The woodcut is often found pasted into the 1540 edition of the Complete Works of Erasmus, published by Froben and Episcopius in Basel, where the block still is today, preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett. It was however not only produced as a book illustration, but also as a single-leaf woodcut, probably as a tribute to the great humanist and scholar, following his death in 1536.