Beschreibung:

HOLLAR, Wenceslaus (1607-1677). Ierusalem . Hierusalem Veteris Imago Vera. London: 1660. Fantastic artistic recreation of ancient Jerusalem, complete with the Temple envisaged before its destruction. Hollar, one of the 17th century's most skilful and prolific artists and etchers, presents the Temple as though it were a Renaissance-style palace. Built on an enormous masonry base, the huge neo-classical building is surrounded by colonnades, and connected at its sides to the surrounding city by arched bridges over steep ravines. The city buildings themselves have an architectural air of 17th-century London. Hollar was born in Prague into a protestant family that had been given the right to bear arms. His father was an official at the land registry, and seems to have intended his son to follow a similar bureaucratic or legal career. However, probably without any formal artistic training, Hollar left Prague at the age of 20 and emigrated first to Stuttgart, then Strasbourg, before finally working for the publisher Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt. By the mid 1630s, Hollar was publishing his views of the Rhine. In 1636 he met Thomas Howard second earl of Arundel, at Cologne, and duly followed him back to London. There he lodged in Arundel House, courted other patrons, and started to produce his first major productions in England. The present lot is rare: we have only been able to trace 2 copies at auction in the past 40 years (ABPC/RBH). Engraved map on 2 sheets joined, cartouche to top-left with inset plan of ancient Jerusalem 'Hierosolymae veteris ichnographia', key to top-right listing 55 landmarks, buildings and monuments, the whole plate, title within cartouche and key with double-ruled borders in red ink, the plate with numbers referring to a key below title, verso blank, 1078 x 388mm (plate mark), 1110 x 430mm (sheet).