- Museum number
- 1895,0122.296
- Title
-
Object: Luna/ Moon
-
Series: The Seven Planets
- Description
-
The goddess holding a crescent moon and riding a chariot drawn by two female figures; below various figures fishing with nets and rods in foreground; landscape background with a lake and an ale-house (?) at left; set inside an ornament frame; from a series of seven woodcuts.
Woodcut and letterpress
- Production date
- 1531
- Dimensions
-
Height: 349 millimetres
-
Width: 233 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This belongs to series of the 'Seven Planets', of which the others represent Mars, Venus Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and the Sun (Jupiter, Hollstein 96, is not in the British Museum, which holds two impressions each of Hollstein 89, 90 and 94). The series was attributed by Pauli and Dodgson to Sebald Beham; Dodgson later changed his mind and agreed with Röttinger's attribution to Pencz (in an annotation to the copy of his catalogue in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum) an opinion that was accepted by Tilman Falk in the 1991 Hollstein publication (Hollstein, p. 187). Impressions of 'Sun' from the first edition are dated 1 August 1531 and inscribed with the name of the publisher, Albrecht Glockendon. The subjects of the series are based on a well-known set of Florentine engravings of the 'Planets' of c.1460, attributed to Baccio Baldini (see Hind, I, pp.77ff, no. A. III 1-9). The Italian series has long inscriptions underneath each print giving the various characteristics and occupations which the planets control, and uncut impressions of Pencz's prints show that they too were similarly inscribed. Pencz's compositions are, however, quite different and give an entirely contemporary interpretation of the Italian prototypes (see Zschelletzschky, pp. 134ff). In 'Luna', the moon's association with water denoted a connection with fishing and milling, activities which are represented in the foreground. The man climbing out of the water with his back to the viewer was inspired by a figure from Michelangelo's 'Battle of Cascina', engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi in 1510 (Bartsch, 361, 363). In 'Mars', named after the god of war, a prince's mercenary troops are seen attacking a peasant family, stealing cattle and burning a village in a brutal scene which contemporaries would have understood as a direct reference to the Peasants' Revolt of 1525; this uprising was only finally quelled after thousands of peasants had been killed. The planet 'Venus', named after the goddess of love, controlled all aspects of courtship and the depiction here of amorous couples in an idyllic landscape is reminiscent of Sebald Beham's 'Feast of Herodias', produced at about the same date (see 1919,0616.40).
The prints are composed of different blocks: a single one for the central image, and four separate blocks for the ornamental surrounds which were repeated on all seven prints. It is clear from their design, with the shading on the columns done to imply a consistent source of light from the right, that the series was supposed to be joined together, so when complete with inscriptions and colouring it would have served as a frieze for a wall decoration. This functional use would account for the scarcity of the series. An exceptional set of the seven woodcuts, all from an edition with four lines of letterpress above each image, was formerly in in the collection of Friedrich August II of Saxony and on the art market in 2016 (see C.Bindman (ed) 'A Selection of prints mostly by the Old Masters, to celebrate our 190th anniversary' C.G. Boerner, 2016, no.24 ).
The series was very popular and copied in a variety of other media, including plaquettes by Peter Flötner (Lange 18-19). BM also has another, later impression, see E,8.276.
See Giulia Bartrum, 'German Renaissance Prints' exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 1995, cat. no 109 for additional literature.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', no.109a
1996 Jun-Aug, Canterbury, Royal Mus and AG, German Ren. Prints
1996 Nov-Dec, Edinburgh, NG of Scotland, German Ren. Prints
1997 Jan-Mar, Cardiff, Nat Mus of Wales, German Renaissance Prints
1997 Apr-May, Llandudno, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, German Ren. Prints
1997 Oct-Dec, Norwich, Sainsbury Centre, German Renaissance Prints
- Acquisition date
- 1895
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1895,0122.296