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拍品专文
Jean Duvet's graphic oeuvre, created during the 1540-50s, coincides with the print production at the School of Fontainebleau. We can assume that Duvet, who worked as an engraver, goldsmith and festival designer in Burgundy and the North-East of France, was familiar with the etchings of Leon Davent, Antonio Fantuzzi and the other Fontainebleau etchers, yet he developed a peculiar style all of his own. His corpus of prints consists mainly of two series, one depicting a unicorn hunt on six horizontal plates, and a set of 23 arched, upright prints of the Apocalypse inspired by Albrecht Dürer's woodcut set of large-scale woodcuts on the subject created approximately forty years earlier (see lots 53-55).
Seemingly driven by a visual horror vacui, Duvet's treatment however is completely different, as he stacks multiple scenes on top of each other, and fills every inch of his plates, leaving barely any blank areas at all. As a result, the images are forcibly dense and the perspective distorted in favour of the storytelling. In the present plate, we see the Angel shown in three different moments of the story, chronologically narrated from top to bottom: in the upper edge of the composition, the Angel is given the key by God; at center, he beats Satan with the same key; in the foreground, he locks the demon - with a resigned, goofy expression - in the bottomless pit for a thousand years.
Duvet's unique, somewhat cartoonish style, perhaps informed by his experience with metal ornaments and festive decorations, makes him one of the most idiosyncratic artists in the history of European printmaking. It can be assumed that Duvet's plates were printed in small numbers only, and only very few good, early impressions such as the present one have survived to this day. Although considerably restored, our sheet is of the utmost rarity. To our knowledge, no other has been offered at auction in the last thirty years.
Seemingly driven by a visual horror vacui, Duvet's treatment however is completely different, as he stacks multiple scenes on top of each other, and fills every inch of his plates, leaving barely any blank areas at all. As a result, the images are forcibly dense and the perspective distorted in favour of the storytelling. In the present plate, we see the Angel shown in three different moments of the story, chronologically narrated from top to bottom: in the upper edge of the composition, the Angel is given the key by God; at center, he beats Satan with the same key; in the foreground, he locks the demon - with a resigned, goofy expression - in the bottomless pit for a thousand years.
Duvet's unique, somewhat cartoonish style, perhaps informed by his experience with metal ornaments and festive decorations, makes him one of the most idiosyncratic artists in the history of European printmaking. It can be assumed that Duvet's plates were printed in small numbers only, and only very few good, early impressions such as the present one have survived to this day. Although considerably restored, our sheet is of the utmost rarity. To our knowledge, no other has been offered at auction in the last thirty years.