11. Franz Brun (fl. 1550-1570)
after Jakob Binck (ca. 1500-1559)

The Drummer

(click on image to print)
Brun, The Drummer

The Drummer

Engraving, 1559, Bartsch 39 (as Master FB), Hollstein 47, 71 x 48 mm. Fine, clear impression on laid paper, trimmed on or just inside the plate mark (the drum is incomplete in both Binck’s and Brun’s versions). The extensive copying of prints in the sixteenth century was largely the result of the absence of any copyright laws regarding images; only signatures were protected and it took a law suite by Dürer to establish that. The rest was mostly a matter of geography. A print created and successfully merchandised in one place might very well provide the impetus for an artist in another place to copy it and offer the copy for sale in his locale. While both Binck and Brun were born in Cologne (Köln), Bink did most of his work in Nuremberg and later in Denmark, while Brun stayed at home. The geographical separation produced separate potential markets, and Binck also did his share of copying other artists’ works. Brun’s copy here, signed with his own monogram and date, four years after Binck’s, is in reverse, but accurate, perhaps even superior in depiction of reality (the right and left hands are correctly placed, whereas in the original they are reversed, indicating that Binck himself may have copied a drawing). It should be noted that both the Binck and Brun engravings are quite scarce.

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