Antique portrait print 1632 I Galle after Rubens I Justus Lipsius

Cornelis Galle I (1576-1650), after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), after Abraham Janssens (c.1575-1632)

[Antique portrait print, engraving, 1632] Portrait of Flemish scholar Justus Lipsius (Portret van Justus Lipsius), published 1632, 1 p.

Name: [Antique portrait print, engraving, 1632] Portrait of Flemish scholar Justus Lipsius (Portret van Justus Lipsius), published 1632, 1 p.
SKU: PR121217
Price: 200.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Portrait of Justus Lipsius (1547-1606), bust directed to the right, within an elaborate frame; on the right the serpent winding round the cornucopia symbolises Prudence, while the scroll on the other side symbolises Doctrine and is lettered with the titles of Lipsius’s major works; above is Mercury’s winged hat. Frontispiece to Lipsius’s edition of Seneca’s works “L. Annæi Senecæ Opera” (Antwerp: 1615, 1st edition). This impression was included in the third edition from 1632.

After a drawing by Rubens at the British Museum (inv. 1891,0511.31). The preparatory drawing depicts the Flemish scholar Justus Lipsius and was for inclusion in the volume of Seneca’s works that was published in 1615 by the Plantin Press in Antwerp. Rubens’ depiction of Lipisus was produced by working from a painting by Abraham Janssens which explains for the rather static character. The portrait was drawn first and then Rubens drew in the foliate frame which is rich with emblematic meaning and incorporates a wreath, cornucopia, a winged hat of Mercury, the sun and two lamps. Subsequent touches were added to the face of Lipsius in pen and ink. The design was subsequently engraved by Cornelis Galle I.

Entry from J. Rowlands, ‘Rubens: Drawings and Sketches’, exhibition catalogue, London, British Museum, 1977:
The sitter, Justus Lipsius, was a famous Flemish scholar and leading exponent of a modern stoic philosophy. He attempted to embrace and reconcile the ever increasing divisions in thought and religion in his day. In his search for a solution his restless moves from one sect to another of Christianity are not without considerable significance. Through his brother Philip, who was a pupil of Lipsius, Rubens adopted much of the Stoic outlook, which, in any case, harmonised well with his temperament. He was for moderation in all things, nothing to excess.
This design is for the engraving, in reverse, by Cornelis Galle, included in Lipsius’s edition of Seneca’s works published by the Plantin press in 1615 (see 1891,0414.1001). Lipsius’s edition of the works of the Roman rhetorician, dramatist and philosopher was long to remain the standard one. The influence of Seneca’s philosophical thought in the post-classical world reached its peak in Lipsius’s own writings. As with all his other portraits of Lipsius, Rubens based it on that, now lost, of the philosopher by Abraham Janssens.

Lettered on the plinth with Lipsius’s motto: MORIBVS ANTIQVIS. Lettered in Latin below in a cartouche with an allusion to Timanthes, in two lines: LIPSIADÆ, velum est Timantis, imago. videri / Sol quoque sub picea non nisi nube potest. / Henr. d’Oultremannus. Lettered with production detail, in lower right corner: Corn. Galle sculp..

[NL] Antieke prent. Portret van de auteur en Belgische geleerde Justus Lipsius, in een ovale omlijsting met vruchten, slangen en fakkels. Aan weerszijden staan twee olielampjes op een sokkel met het opschrift: Moribus antiquis. Onder de voorstelling een cartouche met een Latijns vers van Oultreman. Justus Lipsius, eigenlijk Jodocus Lips, was een Zuid-Nederlandse humanist, filoloog en historiograaf. Lipsius studeerde aan de katholieke Universiteit Leuven en doceerde in het lutherse Jena en in het calvinistische Leiden. Auteursportret voor: L. Annaeus Seneca (ed. J. Lipsius). Opera quae extant omnia. Antwerpen, ex officina Plantiniana, (meerdere edities; voor het eerst uitgegeven in 1615, voor het laatst gebruikt in de editie 1652).

Het hoofdgebouw van de faculteit Geesteswetenschappen (tot dec. 2008 faculteit Letteren) van de Universiteit Leiden is vernoemd naar Lipsius, net als de studievereniging van de master Encyclopedie en Filosofie van het Recht te Leiden en het gebouw waarin de Raad van de Europese Unie is ondergebracht. Dit ” Justus Lipsiusgebouw” ligt in het hart van de Europese wijk rond het Brusselse Schumanplein.

SKU: PR121217

Engraving on paper, text in letterpress on verso, pasted down on another sheet of laid paper, cut on plate; total: 295 x 193 mm; some rubbing and discolouration, traces of folding on the top right corner, in the middle, and on the bottom corners; otherwise in good condition. Hollstein 177; Schneevoogt 183.255; Muller 3248; van Someren M.3248; Corpus Rubenianum XXI 30.

€ 242,00 (€ 200,00 ex. btw)

In stock