Inscribed at lower left, above margin, "A Bloemaert Inven: / W Swanenb. Sculp: 1609."; at lower right, above margin, "I Razet divulge:"; in lower margin, "Visa iuventuti Venus (ah, deflenda voluptas!)/ Plùs nimio placui Magdalis atra mihi. / Ipsa ego mevelut un Speculo teterrima vidi, / Os mea cù Christus vertit in ora suum. / Spectatum Veneres veniant; spectentur et ipsae; / Pompa supercilijs protinus orba cadet. / MAGDALENA. / C. Plempius 73."
Watermark:
This print belons to a series of penitent saints engraved and published by Willem van Swanenburg after degsigns by Abraham Bloemaert, who conceived of them as three contrasting, yet compositionally related pairs: Peter and Paul, Zachaeus and the Magdalen, and King Saul and Judas Iscariot. The date 1609 on the engraving of the Magdalen indicates that it was the first in the series, the remainder of which followed by 1611. Below each figure is an inscription composed by C. Plempius and Petrus Scriverious, two renowned Latinist poets. To portray the theme of sinners as a group was a fairly unique inconographic development that conveyed a strong Counter-Reformatory message in its promotion of the sacrament of penance, which had been refuted by the Calvinists. The typically Mannerist proportions and contorted poses of Bloemaert's figures clearly informed Swanenburg's often serpentine handling of the engraved line. Each figure is presented monumentally and in a dramatic pose, and background vignettes relate to the subjects' individual narratives. Our set of prints appears to have been issued for the 1719 edition of Gerard de Lairesse's Principles of Drawing. (Andaleeb Banta)