Grotesque Ornaments

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Artist/Maker Christoph Jamnitzer (German, 1563 - 1618)

Datepublished 1610 (possibly printed later)

MediumEngraving

DimensionsSheet (trimmed within edges of plate): 5 3/16 × 5 15/16 in. (13.2 × 15.1 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Carnegie Corporation

Object number1928.11

Not on view

DescriptionA draftsman, printmaker, and goldsmith from a celebrated family of metalsmiths, Christoph Jamnitzer probably studied in Italy and is recorded as having traveled to Prague in 1609, yet his style remained very much in dialogue with Mannerist trends in his hometown of Nuremberg. The Neuw Grotteßken Buch, published there in 1610, was Jamnitzer’s first and only book, consisting of sixty illustrations of grotesques and other fantasy subjects along with a title page, dedication, and poem for each of its three parts. Grotesques are ornamental designs combining scrollwork and architectural elements with floral and faunal forms; they were initially inspired by the discovery, at the end of the fifteenth century in Rome, of the intricate painted decoration of Emperor Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House), which was built between 64 and 68 CE. Jamnitzer’s pattern book was intended as a source of designs for artists, architects, and other metalworkers, but its complex forms were rarely adopted in actuality. This plate from the book depicts six grotesque forms that meld floral motifs with zoomorphic elements; hidden within are faces that peer out at the viewer. In the dedication, the artist compares his creative inventions to Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the West Indies, as both had paved the way for others; in fact, Jamnitzer derived the forms in this plate from tropical plants such as coca, guava, and coconut palm that he had likely seen only in books, such as Francisco López de Gómara’s Cronica della Nueva España of 1555. The Carnegie Corporation gave this print to the College in 1928 as part of a program to provide colleges in the United States and Canada with raw materials from which to teach the history of art. Under the program, the recipients received “laboratory collections” of art containing original prints, such as this one, along with textile samples and photographs of great works of architecture, sculpture, and painting. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

European Art

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 26, illus.);

Provenance 1928: Hamilton College (James Library), by gift of Carnegie Corporation.

Markings None noted.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 92.

Signature Not signed.

Inscribed "Jamitzer" and "13" on verso at lower center in pencil; "12" on verso at lower right in pencil.