DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0099
DRY-POINTS, AND ETCHINGS.
16 THE RAPE OF AMYMONE — B 71; H 801; R 125;
M 20.— Monogram.
a. Very good impression, warmish black ink, absolutely clean wiped.
b. Also a good impression, although probably later than a. Printed
in a softer, warm ink, clean wiped, and therefore quite delicate.
c. Reversed copy, by Johannes Ladenspelder van Essen, according to
Nagler, “ Monogrammisten,” III, p. 994, No. 2614.
Fine impressions in London, Paris, and Berlin, in black ink, clean wiped,
that in London rather warmish. This last is especially rich, and seems to show
traces of the bur left by the graver.
Good impressions from this plate, like a, produce something of the sugges-
tion of color, which is due, however, rather to the variety of objects and forms,
—landscape, buildings, water, the body of the woman, the scaly merman,— than
to a conscious striving after variety of texture for the sake of color, although
there is an attempt in that direction noticeable in the different treatment of the
bodies of the woman and the merman.
Retberg assigns the plate to about 1509, Heller to 1500-06, Grimm (Jahr-
buch II, p. 189) to “the very first years after 1500,” with reference to a draw-
ing dated 1503. A comparison of the workmanship with that of “ The Coat-
of-Arms with the Skull” (No. 30 of this catalogue), which is dated 1503, shows
that the“Amymone” must be considerably earlier. It seems hardly to admit of
doubt, moreover, that the four plates here numbered 14 to 17 form a closely
related group. (See Introduction, p. xvii.)
It is generally conceded that it is this print to which Diirer alludes in the
diary of his journey to the Netherlands, as “The Sea Wonder” (“ Das Meer-
wunder”); an old anonymous Nuremberg writer calls it “The Sea Robber”;
Vasari describes it as “ a nymph borne away by a sea monster, while
other nymphs are seen bathing.” The title generally accepted to-day is
the one above given. “This representation,” says Heller, however, “does
not quite agree with the history of the Triton carrying off one of the fifty
daughters of Danaus; we think rather that it is intended to represent the
story of Glaucus carrying off Syme, and the man crying out in the distance
is probably Glaucus when he was still a fisherman and about to throw
himself into the sea, where he was changed into a Triton, as which he carried off
Syme, and brought her to an island not far from Caria.” The remedy proposed
in this case seems as bad as the disease. The subject is one of those in which
11 17
16 THE RAPE OF AMYMONE — B 71; H 801; R 125;
M 20.— Monogram.
a. Very good impression, warmish black ink, absolutely clean wiped.
b. Also a good impression, although probably later than a. Printed
in a softer, warm ink, clean wiped, and therefore quite delicate.
c. Reversed copy, by Johannes Ladenspelder van Essen, according to
Nagler, “ Monogrammisten,” III, p. 994, No. 2614.
Fine impressions in London, Paris, and Berlin, in black ink, clean wiped,
that in London rather warmish. This last is especially rich, and seems to show
traces of the bur left by the graver.
Good impressions from this plate, like a, produce something of the sugges-
tion of color, which is due, however, rather to the variety of objects and forms,
—landscape, buildings, water, the body of the woman, the scaly merman,— than
to a conscious striving after variety of texture for the sake of color, although
there is an attempt in that direction noticeable in the different treatment of the
bodies of the woman and the merman.
Retberg assigns the plate to about 1509, Heller to 1500-06, Grimm (Jahr-
buch II, p. 189) to “the very first years after 1500,” with reference to a draw-
ing dated 1503. A comparison of the workmanship with that of “ The Coat-
of-Arms with the Skull” (No. 30 of this catalogue), which is dated 1503, shows
that the“Amymone” must be considerably earlier. It seems hardly to admit of
doubt, moreover, that the four plates here numbered 14 to 17 form a closely
related group. (See Introduction, p. xvii.)
It is generally conceded that it is this print to which Diirer alludes in the
diary of his journey to the Netherlands, as “The Sea Wonder” (“ Das Meer-
wunder”); an old anonymous Nuremberg writer calls it “The Sea Robber”;
Vasari describes it as “ a nymph borne away by a sea monster, while
other nymphs are seen bathing.” The title generally accepted to-day is
the one above given. “This representation,” says Heller, however, “does
not quite agree with the history of the Triton carrying off one of the fifty
daughters of Danaus; we think rather that it is intended to represent the
story of Glaucus carrying off Syme, and the man crying out in the distance
is probably Glaucus when he was still a fisherman and about to throw
himself into the sea, where he was changed into a Triton, as which he carried off
Syme, and brought her to an island not far from Caria.” The remedy proposed
in this case seems as bad as the disease. The subject is one of those in which
11 17