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Image

Jacques de Gheyn II

Fortune-Teller

Description

Maker

Jacques de Gheyn II (Dutch, 1565-1629)
Nicolas de Clerck, publisher

Title

Fortune-Teller

Year

ca. 1608

Medium

  • Engraving on light weight cream laid paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Engraving on light weight cream laid paper

Materials

engraving

Supports

  • Light weight cream laid paper

Dimensions

Plate/Image: 26.4 x 20.3 cm (10 3/8 x 8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Verso: in pencil inscribed along right edge:de GheynIn Plate--Inscribed, LR:[IDG monogram]. in. N. de Clerck ex.

Marks: Stamped in black ink on verso:R.I.S.D./MUSEUM/OF ARTsurrounded byPROVIDENCE/RHODE ISLANDall inscribed in a circle.

Identification

State

1st of 3

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

58.053

Type

  • Prints

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650

Renaissance engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy that are composed entirely of lines. Artists began using this intaglio process in Europe as early as 1430. This captivating catalogue focuses on the height of the medium, from 1480 to 1650, when engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to engraving technique as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks in other media. The Brilliant Line follows these visual transformations and offers new insight into the special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers. The three essays discuss how engraving’s restrictive materials and the physical process of engraving informed its visual language; the context for the spread of particular engraving styles throughout Europe; and the interests, knowledge, and skills that Renaissance viewers applied when viewing and comparing engravings by style or school.

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line
Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650
Sep 18, 2009 – Jan 03, 2010

Label copy

Jacques de Gheyn II trained in Hendrick Goltzius’s studio, but left Haarlem for Amsterdam to start his own successful printmaking enterprise. Here De Gheyn employs a much simplified and elegant language of widely spaced, thick swelling lines, and reduces dependence on the lozenge and dot technique. This engraving has been attributed to Andries Stock, a close follower of De Gheyn’s, in addition to de Gheyn himself.

Two elegantly dressed ladies, their coin purses prominently in view, have traveled outside the city to ask an itinerant fortuneteller their fates. As the gypsy, offset by a fantastic tree, takes the coin from the lady’s hand, the lady’s downcast eyes indicate her own moral dilemma. The accompanying verses, which have been cut from this impression, warn the viewer against trusting too much in the knowledge of the future. De Gheyn was interested in the world of witches and soothsayers, and made several compositions of preternatural phenomena.

Use & Feedback

Image use

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Jacques de Gheyn II (Dutch, 1565-1629)
Nicolas de Clerck, publisher
Fortune-Teller, ca. 1608
Engraving on light weight cream laid paper
Plate/Image: 26.4 x 20.3 cm (10 3/8 x 8 inches)
Museum Works of Art Fund 58.053

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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