8. Hieronymus Hopfer
(fl. 1525-1550)
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

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Hopfer: Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Etching, on iron, 1529, 223 x 155 mm., Bartsch 58 i/ii (?). Fine impression, clearly better than the one in The Illustrated Bartsch (British Museum), on laid paper with a complex watermark, which may be a demi-griffon over a double shield and the initials VD, trimmed on or just inside the platemark, the subject and border complete. Apparently, no second state impressions (those with a number added in the 17th century by David Funck) are known to exist, so the plate may have been lost or destroyed before then, leaving this the only state. Extremely rare and one of Hopfer's greatest prints, the use of armor-like chasing as a background for the head very likely unique in etched portraiture. Charles V (1500-1558) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 through 1556 and King of Spain as Charles I. He was the grandson of Emperor Maximilian I and of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.