print
- Museum number
- P,1.289
- Title
- Object: Effigies eximii viri Dni Didaci Salmienti de Acuna, Comitis de Gondomare ...
- Description
-
Portrait of Count Gondomar, head and shoulders in an oval, wearing a ruff; a working proof. 1622
Engraving
- Production date
- 1622
- Dimensions
-
Height: 195 millimetres
-
Width: 118 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Text from Antony Griffiths, 'The Print in Stuart Britain', BM 1998, cat.18)
Very few working proofs by Simon de Passe are known; another example in the British Museum is of Pluvinel of 1623 (Holl.105; 1927-10-8-26), and a third, in the Rijksprentenkabinet in Amsterdam, is of the Count of Mansfeld of 1623. This proof shows clearly how Simon completed the portrait before beginning work on the frame. This was standard practice during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A textbook by Domenico Tempesti of the late 1670s explains that it is impossible to work in any other way: the balance of tones is only created by the cross-hatching, so the area has to be completed if anything is to be legible, and if the different parts are to stand in the correct relation to each other (see Maxime Préaud, in 'Print Quarterly', XII 1995, p.408).
After 1618 the numbers of plates made by Simon de Passe dropped considerably, and he scarcely worked again for Holland or Sudbury & Humble; five of his prints during the next three years were for John Bill, the King's printer. In 1622 the pattern of his output changed yet again. Only five plates belong to this year, and they present some curious features.
Probably the earliest of them is this portrait of the Spanish ambassador to London. Gondomar left for Spain in May, which is therefore the 'terminus ante quem'. The print is dedicated by Simon himself to the sitter, and bears the name of no publisher. This is odd, but doubly odd is the fact that Simon's brother Willem dedicated another portrait engraving of Gondomar to him in the same year in identical terms (Hind II 288.6). Clearly something was going on between the two Passe brothers and Gondomar, but there is no evidence to explain the nature of the relationship. This plate was later reprinted by Thomas Jenner with a new English title. This implies that the plate was made before Simon's departure from London.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2000 Jan-Mar, Ipswich, Christchurch Mansion, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2000 May-Jul, Bristol, City Mus and AG, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2000 Oct-Dec, Lancaster, Peter Scott Gallery, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2000/1 Dec-Feb, Banff, Duff House, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
2001 Feb-May, Cardiff, National Mus, Printmaking in Stuart Britain
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- P,1.289