{"product_id":"hunting-combat-spectacle-and-survival-on-104-monumental-engravings-of-the-late-renaissance","title":"Hunting, Combat, Spectacle, and Survival on 104 Monumental Engravings of the Late Renaissance","description":"\u003ch2\u003eJoannes Stradanus’ \u003cem\u003eVenationes\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStradanus, Joannes. \u003cem\u003eVenationes Ferarum, Auium, Piscium. Pugnae Bestiarorum: \u0026amp; mutuæ Bestiarum.\u003c\/em\u003e Two series in one volume. Antwerp, Johannes Gallaeus, circa 1585.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most spectacular engraved suites of the late Renaissance: Joannes Stradanus’ \u003cem\u003eVenationes\u003c\/em\u003e, comprising 104 oblong folio copper engravings depicting hunts, animal combats, gladiatorial spectacles, bird-catching, fishing scenes, exotic creatures, dragons, and violent encounters between humans and animals across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the imagined edges of the known world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComplete copies are of the utmost rarity. The present example survives in extraordinarily fresh condition throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Bibliographic Information\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEngraved title and 104 numbered copper engravings with one- or two-line Latin captions. Oblong folio (295 × 374 mm).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eModern brownish-red morocco binding with gilt spine title and blind-stamped cover title, with silk guards throughout; housed in a half-leather slipcase with gilt spine title.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe series first appeared in 1578 in two separate parts, the second beginning with plate 62. Around 1580 a further issue followed under the imprint “a Philippo Gallaeo,” while the present third edition appeared circa 1585 under “A Joanne Gallaeo” in Antwerp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe engravings were executed by Jan Collaert, Carol de Mallery, and Cornelius and Theodorus Galle after designs by Joannes Stradanus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eJoannes Stradanus and the Renaissance Hunt\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJoannes Stradanus (1523–1605), born Jan van der Straet in Bruges, trained in Antwerp under Pieter Aertsen before relocating through Lyon and Venice to Florence, where he joined the circle of Giorgio Vasari and worked for the Medici court.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis artistic language fused Flemish realism with Italian Mannerist dynamism. Particularly important were the vast hunting cartoons he created for Cosimo de’ Medici’s hunting villa at Poggio a Caiano, where naturalistic observation merged with theatrical movement, violence, and invention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eVenationes\u003c\/em\u003e emerged directly from this artistic environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Universal Theatre of Violence\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross 104 engravings, Stradanus constructs an encyclopedic theatre of pursuit, conflict, survival, and spectacle in which every creature may become either hunter or prey. Lions attack men from behind. Bulls gore hunters. Wolves tear through deer. Dogs overwhelm boars and bears. Elephants battle serpents. Gladiators confront wild beasts before Renaissance audiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElsewhere pygmies wage desperate war against cranes after Homeric tradition, dragons emerge from caves, unicorns are hunted through forests, and monstrous sea creatures surround heavily laden ships beneath swelling sails. The scenes unfold on land, underground, at sea, and in the air, extending from recognisable Central European landscapes to Persia, India, Ethiopia, Egypt, and fantastical “barbarous regions” at the fringes of the Renaissance imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe work repeatedly collapses the boundary between observation and fantasy. Renaissance zoological knowledge remained limited despite the age of exploration, and Stradanus freely allows mythological creatures and exotic speculation to enter the visual field beside recognisable animals rendered with astonishing naturalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFrom Chivalric Hunt to Mannerist Spectacle\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eVenationes\u003c\/em\u003e also reveal a major transformation in European hunting culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Maximilian I’s \u003cem\u003eTheuerdank\u003c\/em\u003e, hunting still functioned primarily as a demonstration of knightly virtue and aristocratic discipline. By the late sixteenth century, Stradanus instead presents hunting as spectacle, danger, choreography, and sensory intensity. Falconry appears only briefly; Alpine chamois hunting survives almost as a historical remnant. What dominates instead is conflict itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe series becomes a vision of nature as permanent instability — an endless chain of pursuit and destruction in which neither animals nor humans possess lasting control.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Masterpiece of Antwerp Print Culture\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe engravings rank among the finest achievements of late sixteenth-century Antwerp printmaking. The broad horizontal format allowed Stradanus to orchestrate unusually complex narrative scenes filled with movement, diagonals, layered action, and dramatic spatial depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, the plates contain moments of remarkable observational subtlety. A stag quietly scratches behind its ear while danger approaches unseen. Terrified monkeys display unmistakably human expressions. Ostriches, crocodiles, whales, cranes, bees, and coral divers are rendered with equal attention and imaginative force.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is simultaneously natural history, mythology, ethnography, theatre, and spectacle — one of the most ambitious visual encyclopedias of violence and survival produced during the Renaissance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHans Dedi (1918–2016), with illustrated ex-libris depicting a medieval hunting scene. Accompanied by his typed note:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Die Blätter habe ich lose bei Fleury in Paris gekauft, 1972 und bei Ringer in Nürnberg binden lassen.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLiterature\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCf. Adams S 1920 (different edition); BM STC Dutch 194 (different edition); Brunet V, 558; Ceresoli 501; Ebert 21837 (different edition); Funck 397 (different edition); Graesse VI\/1, 508; Nissen, \u003cem\u003eZBI\u003c\/em\u003e 4012; cf. Schwerdt II, pp. 226ff. (1578 and 1580 editions); Souhart 446; Thiébaud 858; on Stradanus see Thieme\/Becker 32, 149f.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see \u003cem\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/em\u003e Catalogue 90, number 64:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/heribert-tenschert\/docs\/katalog_90_vol_2_web?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"\u003eWunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46838072017084,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/Stradanus-1.jpg?v=1779387492","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/hunting-combat-spectacle-and-survival-on-104-monumental-engravings-of-the-late-renaissance","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}