The master E.S. and the Ars moriendi : a chapter in the history of engraving during the XVth century, with facsimile reproductions of engravings in the University Galleries at Oxford and in the British Museum / by Lionel Cust.

  • Cust, Lionel, 1859-1929.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The master E.S. and the Ars moriendi : a chapter in the history of engraving during the XVth century, with facsimile reproductions of engravings in the University Galleries at Oxford and in the British Museum / by Lionel Cust. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    at times, engraved a series of small prints illustrating 'The Passion,' of which eight only have survived This series of ' The Passion' appears to have been the original from which three series o{ grisaille miniature-paintings were taken, which are found in manu- scripts of the period. In an undated Latin book of prayers in the Royal Library at Brussels twenty-two grisaille drawings appear, representing scenes from the Passion and the lives of the Saints, in which the eight known engravings by The Master of the Gardens of Love were copied. An undated Netherlandish book of prayers in the Plantin-Moretus Museum at Antwerp contains fourteen grisaille drawings of a similar nature. In a manuscript of ' Le Miroir de la Salvation Humaine,' also in the Royal Library at Brussels, a similar series of grisaille engravings occur, comprising a Passion series, in which the said eight engravings are copied, and a series of Saints, among which figures the St. Anthony of The Master of the Gardens of Love. Twice are found in this manuscript animals from the set of playing-cards engraved by The Master of the Playing Cards. This last manuscript was written for Philip, Duke of Burgundy, by Jean Miellot, and is dated 1448. It is evident therefore that not only the engravings of The Master of the Playing Cards but also those of The Master of the Gardens of Love enjoyed a considerable vogue and popularity previous to 1448. The date therefore of 1446 on the Renouvier Passion series at Berlin can onl3^ be accepted as the earliest known date which appears upon a copper-plate engraving, and not as any proof of its being the actual date of invention. The eight prints of the Passion by The Master of the Gardens of Love were pasted in a small manuscript book of prayers of the fifteenth century, which has been broken up and dispersed. Fragments of this manuscript are in the collections of engravings in the German Museum at Nuremberg, the National Library at Paris, the Royal Library at Dresden, and elsewhere. The other prints pasted in the same manuscript are by different hands, the greater number being by the engraver known as The Master of St. Erasmus, owing to the fact that an original engraved plate by him with this subject exists in the German Museum at Nuremberg ^ ' See Max Lehrs, Der Meister der Liebesgarten (Dresden, 1893). * See Max Lehrs, Katalog der im Germanischen Museum befindlichen deutschen Kupfersticbe des XV. Jahrhunderts (Ntirnberg, 1888).