?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
JACQUES BELLANGE Military Figures outside a City.
Etching and engraving, circa 1605. 274x215 mm; 10 7/8x8 1/2 inches. Small eagle watermark (Griffiths/Hartley 30, which they cite for impressions of this subject; there is an impression of this subject with a similar watermark in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). A superb, richly-inked and early impression of this exceedingly scarce etching.
We have found only 3 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
Although there is little known about Bellange's (circa 1575-1616) life, his etchings and drawings are among the most sought-after Old Master works for their unique Mannerist style and virtuosity. Bellange was well-known and respected within his small circle of wealthy patrons, yet his work did not gain wide-spread recognition until well after his death.
Bellange was likely born in the Bassigny region of present-day France. As a young man with a (likely) inherited title of 'knight,' he arrived at the court of Nancy in about 1602. He worked as a highly successful and inventive court painter in Lorraine until his untimely death, though no undisputed paintings or palace decor are known to have survived. Only his etchings and drawings are what remain of his work today. His style blended Northern Mannerism with its elegant elongated forms and Italianate sensuality and pageantry. Though Bellange conveyed power and volume through broad, sweeping movements, there is always an underlying sense of femininity and delicateness in his works. Bellange's subjects, the majority of which were religious, appear otherworldly and stir the imagination. Likely influenced by his life as a courtier and by his creative work for the ballets, they appear in exaggerated fashions blended from Ancient, Oriental and contemporary styles. Some scholarship proposes that he had likely visited Italy to draw inspiration from the celebrated works of Mannerist paragons such as Parmigianino and Veronese. Others suggest that he travelled to Prague to visit the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, a significant Mannerist hotbed at the time. Bellange's etchings enjoyed popularity after his death, but by the beginning of the 18th century, they were considered to be outdated and his reputation waned before a renewed interest among scholars and collectors in the early 20th to 21st century. Walch 19; Griffiths/Hartley 39.
