Tuesday, 20 November 2018

Engraving of a Library with Busts - Engraved by Michael Burghers



Busts of Demosthenes and Cicero on Library Bookcases.
Engraving.

A Bust of Theophrastus.
Engraving.

Michael Burghers (1653 - 1727).

With a couple of further examples of Engravings by Burghers.


Another post of images from the occasional series of Sculptors and Sculpture represented in two dimensions.

Michael Burghers Dutch engraver and draughtsman, He was baptised in the Lutheran Church in Amsterdam came to England in 1672, and settled at Oxford where he worked as assistant to David Loggan and succeeded him on his death as Engraver to the University in 1792. 


He engraved the print in the ‘University Almanac’ for 1676, and most of those which followed it up to 1720. 

He made many small views of buildings at Queen's College and Christ Church. He also engraved the following portraits: William Sommer, the antiquary; Francis Junius, after A. van Dyck; John Barefoot, letter-doctor to the university, 1681; head of James II in an almanac, 1686; William Penderill of Boscobel in Salop; Robert Eglesfield, founder of Queen's College; Sir W. Read, chemical physician; and the Visage of Christ, engraved in the manner of Claude Mellan. 

In  Burghers executed a mezzotint portrait of Anthony à Wood, the antiquary. On several of his plates he added to his name ‘Academiæ Oxon. chalcographis,’ but sometimes marked them with the initials M.B. only. He died, according to Hearne’s ‘Reliquiæ,’ on 10 Jan. 1726-7.




Interior of a Library (probably an Oxford College).

with Roger Ascham author and Tutor to Princess Elizabeth Elizabeth I.

Michael Burghers (1653 - 1727).

164 x 101 mms.

Lettered beneath the busts and portraits with the names of the subjects: 'Demosthenes', 'M. T. Cicero', 'Eduardus Sext. Rex', 'Elizabetha Regina', 'Ioannes Checus Eq.A.', 'Ioannes Sturmius', 'Guilielmus Cecilius Baro.', 'D. Thomas Smith Eq.', 'Ioannes Sleidanus', 'Ioannes Elmarus Episc.', 'Iana Graya', and 'Maria Regina'.

Lettered with production details: 'M Burg. de. et f.'
Inscribed in pencil on verso: 'Roger Ascham & Princess Elizabeth'




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Theophrastos.

Michael Burghers.

British Museum

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Thomas Bodley.

inscribed by Michael Burghers.

70 x 170 mm.

This engraving shows portraits derived from the two busts of Thomas Bodley
The left hand portrait from the stone bust in the Bodleian Library Oxford and the right taken from the alabaster bust on the monument in Merton College Chapel, Oxford.

see my blog posts




National Portrait Gallery.

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Sir Thomas Bodley.
Michael Burghers.
Engraving.
315 x 196 mm.
1674.

National Portrait Gallery.

See my previous blog post -




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Michael Burghers.
From the Oxford Almanac.
Depicting the Clarendon Building with the statues on the roof. 

1720.

360 x 450 mm.

29 May 1719, 'the Proof of a new Almanack for the year 1720 was delivered to the Univ. Engraver, Burghers, being done by Du Bois, who did the Cuts in Baskett's Bible; so that Burghers is only to do the second Plate' (Hearne, Collections, vii. 14). The engraver of some of Thornhill's designs in the 'Vinegar' Bible, printed by John Baskett in 1717, was Claude Du Bosc, 1682-?1745, a french engraver who came to England c. 1712. 

One plate was engraved in London and one in Oxford (University Archives W.P. 21(6)). 

There is an unsigned proof without a calendar in the Ashmolean Museum. There is a drawing in ink and grey and brown wash with white highlights, signed 'J. Thornhill f.', for this almanack in Worcester College Library (Pl. I). A pen line extends below the drawing defining the area of the calendar; an engraved calendar has been stuck into this space . Below it, in George Clarke's hand, is written, 'This is the originall drawing.' In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor dated 1 June 1717 (Bodl. MS. Ballard xi, f. 122), Thornhill writes that he hasn't forgotten his promise to design an almanack but that he wished to have a better engraver than is usually employed, and to arrange the calendar differently. He asks that the drawing he has just done shall be left till the following year. 

In March 1718 he still had not completed his design and promises it for the following year; however, it was finished in May (Bodl. MS. Ballard. xx, ff. 113v, 107). A signature, which appears to have corresponded with that on the drawing, has been scraped out on the plate. The position of the calendar is in fact unchanged, but the frame around the picture is an innovation which was repeated in the next two almanacks.

 Sir James Thornhill, 1675-1734, the most important English baroque painter, worked in Oxford for All Souls College and the Queen's College, and painted the hall at Blenhiem Palace. The Clarendon building, built as the University Printing House, was designed by Hawksmoor and completed in 1713. 

The lead figures of the Muses, which were designed by Thornhill were placed on the roof in 1717.

Petter, Helen Mary. The Oxford Almanacks. Oxford. At the Clarendon Press. 1974. p.52-3.

Image and text above Courtesy Sanders of Oxford.


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