{"id":29194,"date":"2020-11-12T23:05:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T04:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/?post_type=product&p=29194"},"modified":"2021-10-22T15:51:32","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T19:51:32","slug":"old-masters-allegories-five-senses-baumgartner-blue-rococo-set-of-5-antique-prints-augsburg-c-1750","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/product\/old-masters-allegories-five-senses-baumgartner-blue-rococo-set-of-5-antique-prints-augsburg-c-1750\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Masters, Allegory, Five Senses, Baumgartner, Blue Rococo, Set of 5 Antique Prints, Augsburg, c. 1750"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author Franz Reitinger wrote a book in 2016 about the vogue for blue toned art and decorative objects in Germany in the mid 18th Century: Die Blaue Epoche: reductive Farbigkeit im Rokoko [The Blue Epoch: Reductive Color in the Rococo]. <\/strong>According to Reitinger, Baumgartner established himself as “the outstanding representative of poetic printmaking and a well-known exponent of Augsburg Rococo.”\u00a0 Specifically Reitinger discussed\u00a0 the half-dozen series of blue prints that Baumgartner produced for the engraver and publisher Johann Philipp Koch. These include the offered set The Five Senses<\/strong>, as well as series on The Continents<\/strong>, The Parable of the Prodigal Son<\/strong>, The Life of Abraham<\/strong>, and a series on the canals of Venice. According to Reitinger, these blue prints were among “the artistic highlights of the Blue Age” of rococo German printmaking. Reitinger refers to these blue prints with the German word for “cyanotype” meaning a blue print, a term more commonly used today describe certain blue-toned photographs.<\/p>\n

Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner was an Austrian painter, draftsman and engraver in the Rococo style, based in Augsburg, Germany. He began as a painter on glass, but also was a prolific draftsman, leaving behind hundreds of detailed drawings, often on tinted paper and in a large scale, to be engraved by Augsburg publishers such as Kilian, who helped launch his career in Augsburg, as well as by the firms of Klauber, Engelbrecht, and Koch. His facility with reverse glass painting translated well to the blue printing process which became popular in Augsburg in the 1740s. He also made designs in oil on canvas for engravings. He initially painted landscapes but went on to become a noted painter of architectural and religious subjects. Baumgartner executed frescoes for the churches of Gersthofen and Eggenhausen in the vicinity of Augsburg and worked at the Meersburg Palace. His works are in museums around the world, including the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, but perhaps the largest collection of his works is in the Tyrolean State Museum in Innsbruck, Austria.<\/p>\n

The following are rough translations from German to English of the verses on each print:<\/p>\n

Hearing<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the resting stillness of night, hearing sharpens,
\nWhen the trumpet is silent, when the drums do not move
\nYou hear the quiet word and silent music more clearly.
\nLet it, if you want to be wise, lead you to the stillness.<\/p>\n

Taste<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Whatever mouth and throat tastes, sensuality seeks,
\nShe wants to enjoy the taste of food and drink:
\nBut desire often in reluctance lies.
\nAh, but notice the heart in sweet sensuality there.<\/p>\n

Smell<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sweet breath of flowers refreshes mind and nose,
\nWhen their leaves blow the balsam dust to us.
\nAnd where in rose bushes of pure virtue grows,
\nThere remains the smell of praise that her grace deserves.<\/p>\n

Touch<\/strong><\/p>\n

What we are sensitive to can also be felt,
\nThe cold feels the skin of the back bite and blow.
\nAs a soft bed may feel to the lazy.
\nO some would not want to play with the tricks of the heart.<\/p>\n

Sight<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whatever heaven, earth, art, or nature mean,
\nDiscover the vision of the observable world,
\nIt is wily, it sees, it thinks: this is not bad
\nSo think of it all as purely child’s play.<\/p>\n

Publication credits on each print: Baumgartner pinx. Ioh. Ph. Koch exc. A.V.<\/p>\n

Condition:\u00a0Generally very good, recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, with some remaining toning, wear, handling. Outer dimensions of sheets vary slightly, but can be matted and framed the same size as a set.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

“Baumgartner, Johann Wolfgang.” Oxford Art Online.<\/em> 2020. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/gao\/9781884446054.article.T006986 (11 November 2020).<\/p>\n

B\u00e9n\u00e9zit, E.\u00a0Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs.<\/em>\u00a0\u00dfance: Librairie Gr\u00fcnd, 1966. Vol. 1, p. 476. Vol. 5, p. 262.<\/p>\n

Reitinger, Franz. Die Blaue Epoche: reductive Farbigkeit im Rokoko.<\/em> Berlin: Lukas Verlag, 2016. pp. 69-72, 292. Online at Google Books:<\/em> https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/Die_blaue_Epoche\/IUSlDQAAQBAJ (11 November 2020).<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

German verse on Auditus<\/strong>:
\nIn stiller Ruh und Nacht, je Sch\u00e4rfer das Geh\u00f6r,<\/em>
\nWan die Trompete schweigt, die Paucken sich nicht r\u00fchren<\/em>
\nH\u00f6rt man das leise wort und Stille Music mehr.<\/em>
\nLass, wan du klug willst seyn, dich zu der Stille f\u00fchren.<\/em><\/p>\n

German verse on Gustus<\/strong>:
\nWas Maul u Gurgel schmeckt, das sucht die Wollust auf,<\/em>
\nDan sie will den Geschmack mit Spei\u00df u Tranck vergn\u00fcgen:<\/em>
\nSicht aber ihre Lust offt in der Unlust ligen.<\/em>
\nAch merckte doch das Herz in s\u00fc\u00dfer Wollust drauf.<\/em><\/p>\n

German verse on Odor<\/strong>:
\nDer Blumen s\u00fcsser Hauch erquicket Geist und Nasen,<\/em>
\nWan seine Bl\u00e4tter uns den Balsam Dust zublasen.<\/em>
\nUnd woe in Rosenbusch von reiner Tugend grunt,<\/em>
\nBleibt der Geruch des Lobs, den ihre Huld verdient.<\/em><\/p>\n

German verse on Tactus<\/strong>:
\nWas uns empfindlich ist, das l\u00e4\u00dfet sich auch f\u00fchlen,<\/em>
\nDie K\u00e4lte f\u00fchlt die H\u00e4ut der R\u00fccken Bi\u00df und Schlag.<\/em>
\nSo wie ein weiches Bett der Faule f\u00fchlen mag.<\/em>
\nO m\u00f6chte mancher nicht mit Herzens Stichen Spielen.<\/em><\/p>\n

German verse on Visus<\/strong>:
\nWas Himel, Erde, Kunst, Natur gemeines halt,<\/em>
\nEntdecket das Gesicht der aufmerksamen Welt,<\/em>
\nEs List, es sicht, es denckt: ist dieses nicht badey<\/em>
\nSo glaubt, da\u00df alles nu rein Spiel der Kinder sey.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner (1712-1761) (after)
\nJohann Philipp Koch (engraver)
\nF\u00fcnf Sinnen [Five Senses]<\/strong>
\nVerlag Koch, Augsburg: c. 1744-1757
\nMezzotints printed in colors finished by hand
\n13 x 16.75 inches, plate mark
\n13.75 x 17.5 inches, overall
\n$7,000 set of 5<\/p>\n

An exceptionally fine and rare complete set of five rococo prints — each of one of the five senses — composed by Austrian artist Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner. They are executed as mezzotints printed in primarily in blue and finished and heightened by hand — combining other tones including green, red and black. These highly elaborate allegories of hearing, smell, taste, touch and sight incorporate fanciful architectures and a mixture of contemporary and romantic figures of the aristocracy within landscape settings. The complex compositions combine overlapping scenes portraying different aspects of each sense within a spatial framework. The prints are each titled in German and Latin in a Baroque medallion lower center: Das Geh\u00f6r. Auditus. [Hearing]; Der Geruch. Odor. [Smell]; Der Geschmack. Gustus. [Taste]; Das Gef\u00fchl. Tactus. [Touch]<\/strong> and Das Gesicht. Visus. [Vision]. <\/strong>On either side of each title are poems in four verses in German and Latin that relate to the activities portrayed in the print. The poems in four verses explore nature and philosophy, often with undercurrents of romance. The images range from the practical or uplifting (a man gazing through a telescope in Sight <\/strong>and a woman holding a baby in Touch<\/strong>) to the humorous (a dog sniffing another dog’s behind in Smell<\/strong> and the raucous banquet in Taste<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

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