Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Varie Teste

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Varie Teste de Capricci, Title Page
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art possesses a portfolio of etchings published by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld (yesterday's featured painter) in 1656, shortly after returning to Germany in his late forties after many years studying and working in Italy.

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Saint Looking Upward
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Bearded Man
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Bust of Bacchus
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Bearded Man in Profile
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Bust of Woman
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Warrior Bust
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Head of Monk
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Saint in Meditation
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Two Views of Bearded Man
1656
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Outside the sequence of imagined heads and busts, an etching and a drawing by Schönfeld (below) represent  Democritus, the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. In both designs, the sage is depicted in contemplation of life's vanity  among proliferating signs, emblems and overtly decaying reminders of mortality.

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Democritus Meditating on Death
1654
etching
National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
Democritus Meditating on Death
1655
drawing
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart