Venus Lamenting over the Death of Adonis

1654. Etching with engraving on thin laid paper with an early and large unidentified watermark with a sundial and a many-pointed star, and an unidentified collector's stamp in the shape of a beehive in purple ink on the verso (Lugt 2732). 9 3/4 x 12 7/8 inches (247 x 326 mm), thread margins. Uniform age tone with scattered edge nicks and one-inch vertical edge tears at each of the top corners, approximately one inch from the sheet edge (due to stress from a former mount). On the left recto there appears to be a partial 19th century ink stamp in blue, regrettably unidentifiable, which extends slightly into the printed area. The plate number (6), located between the two main bodies of text, is burnished out and rewritten in pencil. On the verso is scatted light discoloration from a former mount, as well as paper tape remnants at three of the four corners. It appears that the watermark has been traced in graphite on the verso in attempt to clarify (or identify) the design. A beautiful, early impression of the ultimate image from Van Swanevelt's six plate series, The Story of Adonis.

[Hollstein 105]. On the collector's stamp, taken from Frits Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d'Estampes Fondation Custodia:
"We have not found the owner of this mark, the name of which must probably be related to what it depicts, a beehive, which could symbolize a concentration of elements around a collection. For us, it evokes the words of the great art historian Henri Focillon, who wrote in the preface to the catalog Le Dessin français dans les collections du XVIIIe siècle (Paris 1935): "It is because the particular genius of the collector consists, by the certainty of discernment and by the personality of choice, to make, with the genius of others, a honey that belongs only to him. »

In the margin of the copy of Frits Lugt's book, The Marks of Collection of Drawings & Prints (1921), from the Galerie Karl & Faber in Munich, it is written "Slg. Moran" opposite number L.2732, with a reference to the Supplement (1956), p. 409. In the latter there is indeed a note at the end of the objects section: "Bienenkorb mit und ohne Initial "M": Slg. Moran, Berlin". But we have not yet found any information on this Moran collection, from Berlin, which would perhaps allow us to identify this amateur beekeeper. A landscape drawing attributed to Theodorus Wilkens, sold on the art trade at Christie's in Amsterdam on November 14, 1984 under number 130, was presented in the auction catalog as coming from a "Moran collection, Berlin, its mark not mentioned in the Lugt". It reappeared in 2004 in the catalog of the Winterberg house, in Heidelberg, Meisterzeichnungen aus fünf Jahrhunderten, under number 21, and this time noted as coming from "anonymous collection L.2732". The joint presence on several drawings and prints of this mark L.2732, associated with the name "Moran", and of the unidentified mark L.4218, M in capital letter followed by a point, both stamped in purple ink, encourages us to write that these two brands are linked to the same collection. They are found stamped on several prints: for example on a mezzotint by Wallerant Vaillant (sale 1995, November 28, London, Christie's, n° 336); on an etching by Daniel Chodowiecki (sale 2001, June 7, Hamburg, Hauswedell & Nolte, no. 139); on an engraving by Pieter II de Jode after J. Jordaens (sale 2004, November 24 and 25, Haarlem, Bubb Kuyper, no. 3485); on three burins by Hans Sebald Beham from the series Les Noces de village (B. 157, B. 161, B. 162; sale 2016, March 22, London, Sotheby's, no. 21). They are still together indicated on an etching by Breenbergh bearing in particular the mark of the doubles of the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, L.2398 (archives of the Fondation Custodia, January 9, 2016). They are also stamped together on the mount of a wash attributed to Bartholomeus Breenberg (sale 1998, November 9, Amsterdam, Christie's, n° 102). The L.2732 mark, alone, has also been reported on old prints: La Sainte Famille by Bartolommeo Biscaino (sale 1987, December 8 and 9, Berlin, Bassenge, Auktion 50, n° 4044); a Shepherd and his herd walking by Gerrit Claesz Blekker bearing the marks of Cabinet Brentano-Birckenstock, L.345, and of J. Pricken, L.2049 (B. 9; id., n° 4045); Empedocles by René Boyvin after Rosso (id., no. 4072); three woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer (B. 76, B. 82 and B. 86; sale 2007, March 28, London, Christie's, nos. 61, 62 and 65). It has also been reported, alone, on drawings: sale 2000, November 24 and 25, Berlin, Bassenge, Auction 76, n° 5647 as Wilhem F. Schlotterbeck (1777-1819); sale 2014, June 14, Hamburg, Hauswedell & Nolte, n° 556 as Jan Hackaert. We also do not know why Lugt proposed the name of Zeidler, of Nuremberg, in the 1921 notice, except that the coat of arms of the bibliophile Carl Sebastian Zeidler (1719-1786) presents a beehive, and the word 'zeidlerei' being an old name to indicate the collection of honey.