Die Heilige Familie mit Maria Magdalena und St. Anna

Lot n° 2005

Circa 1610-1611

Etching and engraving on laid paper

33.6x24.2 cm, sheet size

Catalogues Raisonné

Griffiths/Hartley 4/I (of II)

Walch, rejected, p. 214-217

Condition

Good, toned impression. Occasional pale stains. The vertical and horizontal centrefolds are only clearly visible on the reverse, although this hardly affects the beautiful overall impression on the recto. Somewhat unevenly trimmed, but the platemark visible on all sides

Comments

Despite the signature, Nicole Walch (1971) as well as Amy Worthen and Sue Welsh Reed (1975) had doubts about the authenticity of the sheet and suspected that the plate had been completed by another hand. Antony Griffiths and Craig Hartley included the etching in their exhibition at the British Museum in 1997. They refer to the research of Jacques Thullier (1992) and Sue Reed's revised assessment of 1994.
The certain lack of perspective in the composition is possibly due to the fact that it is an early experiment by the artist in the media of print.