Jacques Bellange - Etchings

Etchings

It is generally agreed that 47 or 48 etchings by Bellange survive, and along with a number of drawings these are possibly all that remain of his art today. He probably branched into etching to spread his reputation beyond the rather small world of Nancy, and was successful in this.

His style is a very personal version of the Netherlandish or Northern Mannerism of artists like Bartholomeus Spranger and Hendrik Goltzius, but using a technique derived from Italian etchers like Federico Barocci and Ventura Salimbeni rather than Netherlandish engraving. Sue Welsh Reed relates his style and technique more to the prints of the School of Fontainebleau, while to A. Hyatt Mayor he combined Italian elements "with an all-out emotion that is German and an intricate feminine elegance that is wholly French". Anthony Blunt followed a line of 20th-century criticism that saw his work as:

the last in a long evolution of that particular type of Mannerism in which a private mystical form of religious emotion is expressed in terms which appear at first sight to be merely those of empty aristocratic elegance. The founder of this tradition was Parmigianino, who invented many of the formulas used by his successors, such as the elongation of the figures, the small heads on long necks, the sweeping draperies, the strained, nervous poses of the hands, and the sweet ecstatic smile which those of Protestant upbringing find it hard not to think of as sickly and insincere, but which incorporates a particular kind of mystical feeling.

There are no concessions to realism in his work. Female figures predominate; most, but not the Virgin, dressed in a fantasy mixture of contemporary court fashion and antique dress. Men mostly wear fantastical versions of Ancient Roman parade uniforms mixed with Oriental elements, including some of the most elaborate footwear seen in art. His work for the court in designing costumes for masques and ballets may be an influence here, and it has been suggested that the four female "gardeners" are connected with specific costume designs. Regular special effects in his compositions include manipulation of space, and many large figures seen from behind in the foreground of works; both the Apostles and Magi sets of single figures include ones seen only from behind, with no face visible. Technically, he makes much use of stippling and burnishing to achieve effects of light and to convey texture.

His two prints with a hurdy-gurdy man come from a very different world of genre works and realism, and the violence of the larger one was original at the time, anticipating themes to be taken up in later decades by the slightly younger Lorraine artist Jacques Callot and others.

His first venture into etching seems to be a single self-portrait inserted into a large print of the ceremonial entry of the new Duke Henri into Nancy in 1610. The established printmaker Friedrich Brentel and his young assistant Matthias Merian — later a major producer of maps and town views — had been brought in to produce a series of prints depicting the funeral of the old Duke Charles in 1608, and the celebrations for the new duke after mourning was complete. Plate 10 of the series shows a large group of mounted courtiers as part of a procession, and it was realized in 1971 that one of the figures, and his horse, is etched in a completely different style, that can be related to Bellange's other prints. It is now generally agreed that Bellange persuaded Brentel (or vice versa) that he should portray himself. This would have been in 1611, and a bookplate that looks to be an early effort is dated 1613; after that, none of his prints are dated, although most are signed.

Scholars have attempted a tentative chronology for the prints, essentially within the period from 1613 to 1616, based mainly on Bellange's increasing confidence and skill with the medium of etching, which was usually supplemented by a limited amount of engraving and, in a few cases, touches of drypoint. However, Griffiths and Hartley are too cautious to do so, noting that differences of technique can arise as much from the different requirements of individual plates as developing skill. Sue Welsh Reed, on the other hand, makes many comments on the assumed place of individual prints in a chronology, placing works like the Annunciation and Pietá among the last, and also seeing an increasing skill in composition as the sequence progresses.

Bellange's widow is recorded as owning 22 of his etched plates in 1619; probably these included the 18 that were later re-issued by the Parisian publisher Jean Le Blond, who added his name to the plate. This suggests that in his lifetime, Bellange supervised the printing of impressions himself; from at least 1615 there was a printing press for intaglio copperplates (a different piece of equipment to a book press) in Nancy. Distribution of prints through a network of dealers across Europe was already becoming rather efficient. Matthias Merian, whom Bellange must have known from his visit in 1610/11, produced 11 pirate copies of Bellange prints for a publisher in Strasbourg, probably as early as 1615 — a standard sign of a successful print in those days. An impression of Bellange's Pieta records that it was bought by John Evelyn in Rome in 1645, and Cassiano dal Pozzo had bought several Bellange prints there, and copies, by the 1650s.

Bellange's subjects can be summarized as:

• Five large prints of religious narrative subjects:Adoration of the Magi, Christ Carrying the Cross, The Martyrdom of St Lucy, Raising of Lazarus, Three Women/Marys at the Tomb
• Smaller religious prints, with several Madonnas and Child
• An incomplete set of figures of Christ, St Paul and the Twelve Apostles, several in two versions, sixteen in total
• A set of three figures of the Three Magi
• Four figures of female "gardeners" or Hortulanae
• Two subjects with a hurdy-gurdy man
• Two scenes from classical mythology, The Death of Portia and Diana and the Hunter (or Orion), and Military figures outside a city, which is either a capriccio, or depicts a classical subject that is now unclear.

• Annunciation

• Military figures outside a city

• The Martyrdom of St Lucy

• Gardener with basket, one of four "Hortulanae"

• Balthazar, one of the Three Magi

• Melchior, another, seen from behind

• The Virgin and Child with the Magdalen and Saint Anne

• The Virgin with a Spindle