print
- Museum number
- 1851,0208.106
- Description
-
Seascape with rocky islands in an ornamental frame; with acanthus scroll ornaments and flanking terms adorned with female busts. c.1543/44
Etching
- Production date
- 1540-1545
- Dimensions
-
Height: 251 millimetres
-
Width: 387 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- The Monogrammist IQV produced around twenty prints of ornamental frames that tend to encase Netharlandish-style landscapes (the exceptions being IQV.61–63). The prints are rare, and nine exist in unique impressions (including 1850,0527.134 and 1850,9527.136). The frames seem to largely represent the Master IQV's own inventions. The imagery ranges from the playful to the bizarre and even the grotesque. Satyrs, terms, masks, contorted and crouching figures, intermingled with strapwork, garlands and a host of other decorative detail. The roots of this aesthetic lie in the Galerie François I at Fontainebleau, and indeed the sources of IQV.51 (1850,0527.138), IQV. 61 and IQV.63 can be identified as the frames surrounding Rosso's 'Twins of Catania', 'Unity of the State' and 'Cleobis and Biton' respectively.
The Netherlandish landscapes in the centre are generally panoramic and show bodies of water dotted with dramatic rock formations, usually seen from an elevated viewpiont. In a few instances, close-up scenes are depicted. It is likely that most of the landscapes follow existing sources, as exemplified by IQV.52 and IQV.54 (1850,0527.139), which show the same views as those repersented by Matthijs Cock (Louvre, inv. 20745) and an anonymous Netherlandish hand (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 1975.131.173). It was standard practice in the Fontainebleau workshop to share and repeat sources, and indeed within the group of ornamentally framed landscapes by the Monogrammist IQV, the same river view is depicted twice (IQV.45 and 57). Jenkins 2017.
Also see 'École de Fontainebleau', Paris 1972, cat. No.364.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1851,0208.106
