12. Hans Brosamer
(ca. 1500-1552)
The Lute Player

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Brosamer: The Lute Player

The Lute Player

Engraving, 1531, 141 x 109 mm., Bartsch 17, Hollstein 25, Kinsky 81-3. An early, full-length study of a seated young man in a courtier's dress (with codpiece), full face, playing a lute. This is an extremely rare print, Hollstein recording only seven impressions of it sold between 1885 and 1954, and it is about four times the size of the usual Little Master musical print. A generally fine impression – which would have been finer had it not been pounced (pin pricked) for transfer, slightly weakening the appearance of the engraved lines – on laid paper with partial thread margins, elsewhere trimmed on or just inside the platemark, but always outside the subject.