Date of Printing: 1676• Medium: Copperplate Engraving (hand colored) • Subject Category: Mythological • Signed: Unsigned• Period Created: Baroque (1600 - 1699) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: 13.5 x 10 • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 20 x 15.5 • Style: Original Vintage • Print on Verso: Blank on verso • Condition: Good, with slight foxing, some spotting• Edition Type: 1st Edition - Limited • Paper Type: Laid Paper • Framed: Print only
SUPERB and beautifully engraved antique mythological engraving with caption in Greek, of Heracles slaying the 7-headed Hydra.
Engraved by Cornelis Bloemaert (1603-1692), after paintings by Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675) for the very scarce large 8vo edition of the 'Tableux du Temple des Muses, tirez du Cabinet de feu mr. Favereau' (Amsterdam: Wolfgank, 1676).
From: Tableaux du Temple des Muses Representant les Vertus, et les vices, sur les plus Illustres fables de l'Antiquité." Written by the monk Michel de Matham, and engraved and drawn by Cornelis Bloemaert, cheifly after paintings by Abraham van Diepenbeeck and Pierre Brebiette.
Original copperplate etching/engraving on a verge type handlaid paper.
Condition: Minor age toning to leaf. Please view images carefully.
Abraham van Diepenbeeck (9 May 1596 (baptised) - May-Sept. 1675) was an erudite and accomplished Dutch painter of the Flemish School. It was after a visit to Italy that the artist began to paint chiefly in oil and to illustrate. Among his illustrations are fifty-eight designs engraved by Cornelis Bloemaert for the Abbe de Marolles' "Tableaux du Temple des Muses".
During the reign of Charles I of England, van Diepenbeeck was in England where, besides painting portraits of the first Duke of Newcastle and his family, the artist illustrated that nobleman's book on "Horsemanship".