Bos, Cornelis Lot n° 5032

The Deposition from the Cross. Copperplate engraving. 40,8 x 31,5 cm. 1545. Schèle 30, Hollstein 33. watermark crowned double-headed eagle (cf. Briquet 304). Major periods of the biography of the Dutch engraver Cornelis Bos have not been clarified so far, although the artist was considered one of the main masters of ornamental engraving, the so-called Floris style in the 1540s. Bos was granted citizenship of the city of Antwerp in 1540 and was admitted as a member of the Guild of St. Luke there that same year. His fortunes took a dramatic turn, however, when he was banished from the city in 1544 for belonging to the Antwerp Libertijnen sect and his properties were confiscated. Bos is said to have educated himself artistically in Rome and to have associated with artists there such as Marco da Ravenna and Enea Vico, yet his Roman sojourn is today considered rather uncertain. Rather, an education in the Netherlands and a stay in Paris or Fontainebleau in the 1530s are assumed as probable in recent times. Around 1537/38 Bos worked as an engraver and woodcutter for Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen and Pieter Coecke van Aelst. After fleeing Antwerp, Bos emigrated to the northern Netherlands and probably stayed first in Haarlem; around 1550 he may have settled in Groningen. The multi-figured, fastidiously composed engraving is based on an invention by the Flemish Romanist Lambert Lombard (1505-1566, Liège). Bos' simple, powerful, almost brittle copperplate technique has a compelling expressive power and dynamism that also recalls the printmaking creations of the Fontainebleau school. - Strong, even print with the border line, or at the top with the whole representation (compare the copy in the Rijksprentenkabinet Amsterdam, Inv. No. RP-P-1882A - 6043). Verso with a small figure sketch in black chalk. Slight signs of age, smoothed folds on verso, somewhat stained and with signs of use, but the overall impression is good. From the Folkes Martin collection (1690-1754, Lugt 1033). Rare.