Venus Honored with Gifts (Venus Receiving Flowers, Fruits, and Birds from Nymphs)
ARTIST: Jan Harmensz Muller (Dutch, 1571 – 1628), after Bartholomaeus Spranger (Flemish, 1546 – 1611)
DATE: c. 1591
TECHNIQUE: Engraving
DIMENSIONS: Image: 26.1 x 20 cm, Platemark: 28.5 x 20.3 cm
STATE: II/V
WATERMARK: Unidentifiable in bottom center of print; crest with strapwork borders
INSCRIPTION: Lettered in plate, in lower left margin: “En Veneri ter grata deae munusculla, vultu quae promunt nymphae, satyri, genjq, sereno”; in lower right: “Pomum, Flos, Vitis, Petulans bis iun cta Columba, An non mollitiem spirant luxumq loquuntur!”; in lower center: “Tu, quem casta iuuant socialis feodera lecti, Has fugito pestes rabido cane pieus & angue.”; signature in lower left: “B.us Sprangers inventor. / JMuller sculptor.”’; in lower right: “Harman Muller excud. Amsterodami.”
CATALOGUE REFERENCE: Hollstein Dutch 202.73 II/V, Bartsch 73
CREDIT LINE: Gift of Barbara P. Taft & Hugh M. Taft ‘44
PROVENANCE: Purchased from Wm. H. Schab Gallery, 1981
COLLECTOR’S MARK: Falkeisen & Huber (Lugt 1008)
OBJECT NUMBER: 1996.036
Reclining on a cushioned throne, the Roman goddess of love graciously accepts the gifts offered to her in Jan Harmensz Muller’s 16th-century engraving. Cupid, identifiable by his quiver of arrows, watches cheekily from under Venus’s arm as three nymphs and a lone faun kneel before her, presenting baskets of fruit, flowers, and fowl. A cherub sprinkles petals from above, while two others hover behind the stately Roman column that dominates the space.
Muller builds his architectural structures with straight, parallel lines that contrast with the sweeping curves that create Venus’s elongated figure. In addition to Venus’s idealized form, the weightlessness of the foremost nymph, whose entire body balances upon her muscled toes, is typical of the Mannerist style of art. Mannerism was popular in the court of Emperor Rudolf II, where Flemish artist Bartholomaeus Spranger was based. Beginning around the time of this print, Muller frequently reproduced Spranger’s paintings in etched form to increase their visibility and spread across Europe.
The Middlebury impression represents the second and final state of the print produced during Muller’s lifetime. The second state is largely unchanged from the first, except for the inclusion of the poem below the image and the addition of floral details in the carpet. After Muller’s death, a handful of second-hand owners in the late 17th century acquired the plates and released later impressions with minor changes, accounting for three more states.
The small margins and unsteadily cut edges of the paper suggest this print was at one point trimmed by hand to fit in a collector’s album. The sheet is slightly raised in the lower-right corner suggesting it was consistently handled. The same corner features a collector’s mark on the reverse, identifying the print as formerly part of the collection of Swiss print dealers Theodor Falkeisen (1768–1814) and Johann Friedrich Huber (1766–1832).
Written by Ian Knapp, edited by Simone Edgar Holmes
Bibliography
Farouki, Carolyn P. Appraisals of Works on Paper Donated to Middlebury College Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. Hugh M. Taft. Plainfield, New Hampshire: L.T. Hall Appraisals of Antiques and Decorative Arts, 1997.
Kok, Jan Piet Filedt. “Jan Harmensz. Muller as Printmaker-I.” Print Quarterly, vol 11., no. 3 (September 1994): 223-264.
Kok, Jan Piet Filedt, Erik Hinterding, and Jan van der Waals. “Jan Harmensz. Muller as Printmaker-II.” Print Quarterly, vol 11., no. 4 (December 1994): 351-378.
Kok, Jan Piet Filedt. “Jan Harmensz. Muller as Printmaker-III, Catalogue.” Print Quarterly, vol 12, no. 1 (1995): 3-29.
Lugt, Frits. “Falkeisen & Huber: L.1008.” Frits Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes. Accessed June 24, 2020. http://www.marquesdecollections.fr/detail.cfm/marque/6989/total/1.
