Johann Friedrich Fleischberger (baptised 1631-buried 1665), Eigentliche Abbildung deẞ Speers mit welchem unsererm Heiland Jesu seine heilige Seite eröffnet worden … J. F. Fleischb[erger] sculp. [Nuremberg], Johann Friedrich Fleischberger [for] W.V., [c. 1660]. Graphic Arts Collection 2020- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a small engraved broadside of the Holy Lance as kept in Nuremberg, surrounded by explanatory calligraphic text and scale measurements. The text that comes with it from the dealer is quoted here:

A rare illustrated broadside which celebrates the Holy Lance not only as a relic and a powerful component of the Imperial Regalia, but also – crucially – points out its historic archaeological importance as an antique weapon. The broadside was commissioned by an as yet unidentified art and armor collector, ‘W.V.’ who asked the Nuremberg engraver J. F. Fleischberger (baptised 1631, buried 1665) to copy it, to scale in reduced form, and adorned its illustration with explanatory text. The text gives a short historical overview about the importance of the Holy Lance, and ends with the note that the broadside was commissioned and paid for by an admirer and collector of old armor, ‘Solchen hat nun ein Liebhaber der Alten Waffen vorstellen lassen nach dem verjüngten Maẞstab’ [= A lover of old weapons has now had such a thing introduced according to the reduced standard’].

The Holy Lance was believed to have been used by the Roman centurion Longinus to probe and pierce the side of Christ when he hung on the cross, to ascertain his death. It is a relic of immense symbolism and power and is considered one the most important pieces of the Imperial Regalia. The Holy Roman Emperors came into possession of the Holy Lance in the 10th century, and in 1424 it was given by Emperor Sigismund to Nuremberg (to be kept there in perpetuity) and was kept there as part of the Imperial Regalia used in subsequent Imperial coronations. It was only moved to Vienna (where it is still kept in the Imperial Treasury) when the French Revolutionary troops threatened Nuremberg in 1796.

 

In addition, our rare book division acquired an uncommon dissertation by the Nuremberg lawyer Spies (1710-1778) on the importance of the Holy Lance in Nuremberg as part of the Imperial Regalia rather than as a relic. The Praeses, or thesis advisor, was the historian Johann David Köhler (1684-1755), professor in Altdorf since 1711, first of Logic then History, and whose supervised dissertations are regarded as important contributions to scholarly discourse. See below:

Wolfgang Spies. Dissertatio historico-critica de Imperiali Sacra Lancea non inter reliqvias Imperii sed clinodia referenda: cvm problemate de novo S. R. I. officio archi-lanciferatv / Qvam svb moderamine magnifici Academiae Rectoris domini Iohannis Davidis Koeleri P. P. Altdorf, Daniel Meyer, December 1731. Rare Books EX 2020- in process

The Holy Lance, displayed in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.
Die Heilige Lanze = The Holy Lance. Karolingisch, 8. Jahrhundert Stahl, Eisen, Messing, Silber, Gold, Leder 50,7 cm lang. Carolingian, 8th century Steel, iron, brass, silver, gold, leather 50.7 cm long.

See also: http://www.historynaked.com/nurembergs-secret-vault/

The British Museum has:
“The relics, vestments, and insignia of the Holy Roman Empire; in the centre of the print is the lance of St Maurice with inscription at its top; to the left and right of the spear are other relics in five rows, all accompanied by an inscription. Woodcut with hand-colouring , Nuremberg, 1470-1480. Inscription in six lines, accompanying the lance: “Dz ist dz sper domit xpo sein heilig seite ward auff gethan und der nagel dr xpo in sein rechten hand geschlage ward.”

“The Imperial Regalia and relics repicted in this print were preserved from 1424-1796 in the Heilig-Geist Kirche in Nuremberg, and were exhibited on the Feast of the Holy Lance on the Helitumsstuhl in the marketplace across from the Frauenkirche. Some of the objects were lost in the removal from Nuremberg during French occupation; the others are kept in the Schatzkammer in Vienna. Descriptions of them were printed in book-form in Nuremberg in 1487 and 1493 and it is highly likely that this print was also published in Nuremberg. Apart from the lance of St Maurice, the representations of the objects are stylised and do not resemble their originals.”

Das Schloss, also spelled Das Schloß (The Castle) was written by Franz Kafka (1883-1924) at the end of his life and published posthumously in 1926. Princeton University Library holds more than 60 editions of the novel or critical essays concerning the text. Its protagonist, known as “K” was the inspiration for this etching by Otfried Culmann titled Das Schloß – F. Kafka [The Castle – F. Kafka] and printed in 1970 in an edition of 50. With sincere thanks to the Ike und Berthold Roland-Stiftung an impression is now part of the Graphic Arts Collection.

The Roland Foundation generously donates art works to museums and libraries around the world, for example to the Goethe Museum in Rome, to the townhall of Capri, the National Library Austria, Vienna, the National Library of Switzerland, Bern, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and now, Princeton University. Originally owned by Dr. Berthold Roland, former Director of the State Museum of Mainz, Germany, this print is it one of many works on paper by German artists that he collected. We are especially grateful to his son Oliver Roland, Managing Director of the Roland Foundation for this donation.

Otfried H. Culmann (born 1949), Das Schloß – F. Kafka, 1970. Etching. Edition 7/50. Gift from the Ike und Berthold Roland-Foundation. Graphic Arts Collection 2020- in process

Culmann was born in 1949 and studied Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Mac Zimmermann. This print was probably made while in Stuttgart where he work briefly with Walter Brudi at the State Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1980s, Culmann turned to writing and is known as much for his fantasy fiction as his visual art. The artist has also transformed the house where he was born, a former parsonage, into a fantastical work of architectural imagination, hopefully opening again soon to the public:

Dressed prints; Decoupés prints; Adorned prints; Spickelbilder (embroidered pictures); Stoffklebebilder (pasted textile pictures); Tinsel prints (metal); Gusseted pictures

These are just a few of the many terms that have been used to describe the prints collaged with cut pieces of fabric or tin or paper. We have yet to agree on the terminology, perhaps because there are few large collections. Or maybe because they are so odd. Pictured here are four from a small group that recently joined the Graphic Arts Collection.

Our new collection of dressed prints are after Martin de Vos’ Life and Passion of Christ, one signed as engraved by Johann Bussemacher (active 1580-1613), one signed by Johann Christoph Weigel (1654-1726), others all unsigned. Each includes German Bible text at the bottom and are dated ca. 1710.

Alice Dolan wrote: An adorned print: Print culture, female leisure and the dissemination of fashion in France and England, around 1660-1779, RCA/V&A MA in History of Design http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-03/an-adorned-print-print-culture,-female-leisure-and-the-dissemination-of-fashion-in-france-and-england,-c.-1660-1779/

Prints adorned with fabrics have largely been treated as extensions of the ‘fashion plate’, by historians, but this terminology fails to do justice to their complexity. (1) American museums have favoured the term ‘dressed plates’, but this phrasing too belies the complexity of the object, suggesting only a surface alteration, when, in fact, the majority of the decoration was placed underneath the print. (2) This article will use the terms ‘adorned prints’, ‘modified prints’ and ‘decorated prints’, although like ‘fashion plate’ and ‘dressed plate’, none of these terms were used by contemporaries.

The Morgan Museum and Library’s “twenty-one volumes entitled Engraved British Portraits contain nearly eight thousand prints, most of which date to the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The collection of fashion prints consists of 391 examples from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Most are mounted, hand-colored extracts from published albums. Thirty-two of the plates are “dressed” or decoupés, created by cutting out portions of the print and facing them from the reverse side with fabric.”

Elsewhere the term Stoffklebebilder or Spickelbilder is used to describe extra-illustrated prints.

Michael Twyman’s Encyclopedia of Ephemera describes the tinsel print as “a hand-coloured print embossed with metallic foil and other materials,” making it one variations of the larger vogue to decorate prints particularly in 17th century France. “Flock and tinsel prints” by Laura Suffield in Grove’s Dictionary of Art, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T028587 adds limited assistance but has a good bibliography: “Collective term for a type of woodcut to which powdered wool (flock) or tinsel (small fragments of metal) was applied. Such prints are rare. The technique was developed to imitate a patterned velvet in texture and appearance, its French and German names reflecting its appearance: empreinte veloutée, Samt-Teigdrucke.” Bibliography:
W. L. Schreiber: Manuel de la gravure sur bois et sur métal au XVe siècle, 5 vols (Berlin, 1891–1910) [s]
W. L. Schreiber: Die Meister der Metallschneidekunst nebst einem nach Schulen geordneten Katalog ihrer Arbeiten (Strasbourg, 1926)
C. Dodgson: Woodcuts of the XV Century in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1929)
A. M. Hind: An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, 2 vols (London, 1935, 2/1963)
A. Griffiths: Prints and Printmaking (London, 1980)
J. Hermans and P. Mahoney-Phillips: ‘Paper, Textiles and Tinsel Prints’, Paper and Textiles: The Common Ground: Preprints of the Conference Held at the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, 19–20 Sept 1991, 125–32

Note that ours are both hand colored and dressed with fabric. It is hard to tell if they are finished.