Frontispiece Design for the New Testament

Frontispiece Design for the New Testament

RP-T-1998-9

This frontispiece design was for the splendidly illustrated Bible published by Pieter Mortier in Amsterdam in 1700. It is an example of just how inventive and almost surrealistic the illustrations of title pages could be. An angel shows the shackled Church a tableau with scenes of the martyrdom of Christ and his twelve apostles. The instruments of their martyrdom lie in the foreground.

draughtsman: Philip Tidemann

c. 1700

grafiet, rood krijt, pen en penseel in bruin en bruingrijs, iets gedoezeld met zwart, kaderlijnen met pen in bruin, gewassen tekening

height 357 mm x width 245 mm

Schetsontwerp voor de gegraveerde titelpagina van de Grote Bijbel van P. Mortier, dl. II (Nieuwe Testament), Amsterdam, 1700.

purchase 1998

Public domain

…; anonymous sale, London (Christie´s), 21 April 1998, no. 409, as Dutch School, early 18th Century, £409, to the museum

Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200411497