The ancient prints - Engravings

THE BRONZE SERPENT
Etching and engraving engraving, mm. 475x617
"Pet. Paul Rubbens pinxit. / S. à Bolswert sculpsit "(bottom left).
Inscriptions: "FECIT ERGO MOYSES SERPENTEM AENEVM, ETPOSVIT EVM PRO SIGNO: QVEM CVM PERCVSSI
ASPICERENT SANABANTVR. Numbers 21. "; dedicates: "NOBILI AC GENEROSO DOMINO DNO. FRANCISCO
GOVBAV, TOPARCHAE DE TRIEST, MESPELAER, ETC. A.D. Q. AEGIDIVS HENRICI. ".
In the middle the coat of arms of François Goubau.
The bronze snake comes from the Rubens painting of the National Gallery in London, n. 59 (G. Martin, 1970, pp. 134-
1379), datable to 1630. Bolswert used a design of interpretation which is the Louvre, n. 20313 (F. Lugt,
1949, II, p. 37, n. 1128, pl. LVII). The drawing, which is part of the Louvre sheets, which were intended for engravers, is attributed
to Bolswert, perhaps with a foundation, from Frits Lugt who compared it to the design of the Holy Family
with the parrot. The table is dedicated by Gillis Hendricx to François Goubau, lord of Mespelaer, born in 1611. The snake
Rubens' bronze had great fame during the seventeenth century, as evidenced by the many copies
painted and the various engraved derivations, those of Cornelis Galle II, Francois Ragot and Antoine Gobert.
We do not know exactly the history of the picture, of which the oldest trace known to us is the presence in the collection
of Lorenzo Marana in Genoa in 1805.