5041 - Bruegel the Elder, Pieter—after

Bruegel the Elder, Pieter—after after. *De vuyl bruit*—*The Dirty Bride*, or: *The Wedding of Mopsus and Nisa*. Copperplate engraving by Pieter van der Heyden. 22.3 x 29 cm. 1570. Bastelaer 216, Hollstein 216 I (of IV), Riggs 51, Orenstein (New Hollstein) 45 I (of IV), Bassens/Grieken 22 II (of V). Mark: Gothic “P” with a four-leaf clover and a post horn as a secondary mark. This remarkable depiction shows a group of street performers staging a comic folk play titled “The Dirty Bride” (De vuyle bruit). Like the woodcut “The Masquerade of Urson and Valentin” (Hollstein 215), this print is related to the painting “The Battle Between Carnival and Lent,” which is housed in Vienna. The coarse, ragged bride being led out of a shabby wedding tent is Nisa, while the dancing groom leading her out is Mopsus. The story of their marriage originates from the eighth eclogue by the Roman poet Virgil, but also found its way into numerous contemporary collections of proverbs and served as a symbol of a world turned upside down. In the print based on Bruegel’s drawing—engraved by Pieter van der Heyden and published by Hieronymus Cock in 1570—Cock added a Latin inscription beneath the illustration: “Mopsus marries Nisa—what might we lovers not hope for?”—expressing the idea that truly anything seems possible. The educated audience of the time certainly appreciated the connection between the ancient reference and a contemporary folk custom of the Carnival season. Whether Bruegel intended the motto or not remains open to question. It was, however, a shrewd move on the part of Hieronymus Cock, who was also aiming to appeal to a learned audience. The original drawing, likely created around 1566 and executed by Bruegel himself on a white-painted wooden block, is preserved at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (Inv. 32.63) and, interestingly, was originally intended as a template for a woodcut, just like the related woodcut mentioned at the beginning; for unknown reasons, however, the carving of the woodblock was abandoned, with only the upper left section having been carved. Presumably, the design did not come into the hands of the Antwerp publisher until after Bruegel’s death in 1569 and was ultimately realized as a copperplate engraving. Bearing the address of Hieronymus Cock. A magnificent, striking, and vigorous early print with a delicate plate tone and a uniformly narrow margin around the plate edge. On the reverse, a slight smoothed center fold as well as a horizontal fold line; on the right in the upper part of the outer tree stump, a nearly invisible filled-in missing section, with very subtle and skillful pen retouching there; a very carefully repaired tear at the top center; a few tiny holes or wormholes; a very faint vertical crease at the bottom left, with imperceptible fraying; otherwise a very beautiful and exquisite copy. Very rare. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.