Rare engraving, platemark 255 x 145mm (10 x 5¾"), with very large margins. Time stained.
Emmanuel Sweert (1552-1612), who in 1612 published his famous 'Florilegium', a superb volume of engravings of flowers (to which this portrait is the frontispiece). The volume was essentially a sales catalogue, in which the beauty of the engravings served to promote the desirability of the plants. This portrait however, with the flower in Sweert's left hand balanced by the skull on which his right rests, is a reminder of the mixed symbolism of flowers.
For coloured impression see ref. 39203. W:2860.
[Ref: 44062]  £260.00