Central Europe, possibly Germany, ca. 1730. Printed leaf (31.1 x 22.8 cm). Mounted.

A beautiful copy of a fine rendering of the famous Temptanion of Saint Anthony, after Martin Schongauer (d. 1491), in the edition of Raphaël de Mey (d. 1630) with a monogram of Albrecht Dürer added. This work by Schongauer - perhaps his best - inspired many contemporary and later artists, including the great Renaissance artist Michaelangelo, who even reproduced it in oil, and De Mey, who, in ca. 1590, added a more elaborate landscape, giving the illustration more depth. The addition of Albrecht Dürer's monogram is, as often, just a 15th-16th century "quality sign". Indeed, the extraordinary craftmanship and evocative strength of this work certainly are on par with Dürer's best, but Dürer himself had nothing to do with it. Also, with a monogram AT and date 1530 [in mirror view, as is the image itself]. Monogrammist AT is listed in Hollstein, under Schongauer, as an 18th century copyist, whose work is present in Museums in Bremen, London, Madrid (Biblioteca Nacional), Oxford, Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule), and Oslo (Nasjonalmuseet). His rendering, however, is not merely a copy of De Mey's, but more subtle in detail and much closer to the Schongauer original. Trimmed to plate border and caption, otherwise very good, clean. Hollstein, German Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts 1400-1700 Vol. XLIX, pp. 130-133 (Schongauer's original version); Idem, Vol. XXVII, pp. 32-33 (Raphaël de Mey version).