Rocky landscape with the stigmatisation of St Francis

Aegidius Sadeler II (1570–1629) was a Flemish engraver who was principally active at the Prague court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and his successors. He was the leading member of the second generation of this important engraving/publishing dynasty.

His early engavings were mostly faithful copies of works by Albrecht Dürer in the Imperial collection and copies of paintings by notable Italian painters such as Raphael, Tintoretto, Parmigianino, Barocci and Titian or by Northern painters who worked there, such as Paul Bril and Denys Calvaert. In Prague he also engraved portraits of the notables of Rudolf's court, and collaborated with Bartholomeus Spranger, the great Northern Mannerist painter and a compatriot of Sadeler's. 

This engraving, based on an original work by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), gives overwhelming predominance to the sublime, rocky landscape. The figure of St Francis, kneeling submissively as he receives the stigmata (Christ's wounds) is very secondary to the landscape. In this way, it is directly comparable to Sadeler's rendition of Paul Bril's <em>Mountainous landscape with hermit</em> (1910-0001-1/40-80). The engraving is in the so-called King George IV album of Old Master prints, acquired by the Dominion Museum, forerunner of Te Papa, in 1910.

See: Wikipedia, 'Aegidius Sadeler', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegidius_Sadeler

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art               February 2017