Triumph of the Noble Victorious Women
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-50), Triumph of the Noble Victorious Women, engraving, 1549 [with inscription, initials and date in the plate]. References: Pauli 244, Bartsch 143, second state (of 3). In good condition, trimmed on or just on either side of the platemark outside of the image. The inscription across the top reads: Trivmpf der edelen sighaften weiber (Triumph of the Noble Victorious Women). 20 x 135 mm, 7/8 x 5 1/8 inches. Archival matting.
Provenance: ex Collection: Dr. Herweg (stamp verso, not in Lugt); ex Collection F. Quiring (Lugt 1041c, stamp verso).
A very good impression of this great rarity.
This is a version of the Triumph of Bacchus, which both Sebald and his brother Barthel had made earlier, without the inscription. The victorious couple in the central chariot has been identified as Neptune (note the trident he carries) and one of his lovers. Both Durer and Lucas van Leyden had focused on the Power of Women theme a few decades earlier; here Beham reworks the theme but with a bit less concern with the mythological figures associated with the theme than his predecessors displayed. Beham replicates the classic triumphant march format often found in Renaissance sculpture and engravings, but his women are generally both triumphant and subjugated, and the spirit has more to do with Bacchanalian partying and less with specific archaelogical or mythological references.
The state changes involve very tiny additions of hatching between the legs of the parties.