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86
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JACQUES BELLANGE
The Virgin and Child with Distaff and an Angel
.
Etching and engraving, circa 1615. 255x192 mm; 10
1
/
8
x7
5
/
8
inches, small margins. Second state (of 3), before the address of
Le Blond. Large bunch of grapes with a curving stalk watermark
(Griffiths/Hartley 11). A brilliant, richly-inked and early
impression of this extremely scarce print.
We have found only 2 other second state impressions at auction
in the past 30 years. Griffiths/Hartley note that there are only
2 known extant impressions in the first state, before the artist’s
signature in the plate lower right (at the Albertina,Vienna, and
in the Prouté collection, Paris).
According to Griffiths/Hartley, “The subject of the Virgin
spinning thread while the Christ Child sleeps was quite
common in scenes of the Holy Family in Egypt, and Reed points
to Dürer’s woodcut (Bartsch 90) as one such example . . . The
distaff and basket of wool (shown on the lower right of this
print) had become associated with theVirgin through a legend
telling of her upbringing in the Temple of Jerusalem, where
she would spin and weave the priests’ vestments.” Walch 9;
Griffiths/Hartley 11.
[40,000/60,000]