21. Hendrik Hondius I (1573-1649)
after Lucas van Leyden(1494-1533)

Uylenspiegel, or Owlglass

(click on image to print)
Hondius, Uylenspiegel, or Owlglass

Uylenspiegel, or Owlglass

Etching and engraving, 1644, Hollstein (Leyden) 159 copy c, New Hollstein (Hondius) 35, 171 x 142 mm., ex collections: Veste Coburg (Lugt 451a); Ferdinand of Coburg (?) (Lugt 961), or an older and yet unidentified mark. Fine impression on a brownish laid paper, trimmed to just outside the borderline, the image complete, but lacking the text above and below; stain upper right. While the original Lucas etching is a great rarity, the Hondius copy is also quite scarce. Uylenspiegel (or Til Eulenspiegel, both, literally, owl-glass or owl-mirror) is a character from medieval German folklore, a wanderer and prankster who plays practical jokes that expose vice, greed, hypocrisy and ignorance. But Lucas has given him not only the profession of bagpiper, but also a huge family of children. His identity, though, is maintained by the owl riding on the shoulder of the first boy.

Inquire $1,800.00 Buy Now