Research
Each engraved image highlighted with various colored silks. All inscribed at the base with German archaic printed script describing the content of each image.
Provenance:
Tomas Serra Orribe, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1996.
Developed in Northern Europe, the depiction of the various ages (or stages) of man has been a popular subject throughout time, particularly in the medieval and renaissance periods in association with beliefs about death and dying. “The earliest broadsides were printed for a popular audience, to appeal to their fears about life and death; sin and salvation; and stimulate the belief in a moral life.”
The present engravings depict the life stages of man between the ages of ten and one hundred. The addition of colored silks over the engraved ground of the present pieces is an extremely unusual and inventive conceit, and this set was much admired by the Victoria & Albert Museum textile department, who found them to be possibly unique.
Full research report available on request.