Fishing for a spouse

Though you need more patience than at speed-dating! Men fishing for women, women fishing for men — the bait varies (see below). The earliest I’ve found it in the albums is 1578, but not found any 17C examples — so seems a short-lived motif limited to the final quarter of the 16C. Outside the albums, there is a pair of mid 17C German prints published by Altzenbach in Koln in the third quarter of the 17C [both held by the British Library at 1870. d. (164)], but more interestingly, a late 17C Italian popular print (BELOW) — given the enormous popularity of Italy as the goal of many German students’ peregrinatio academica, it may well be that the motif was picked up here. Most of the German images show the fishing done from a bridge — as in the print — though this may be no more than a suitabIe commonse platform for the composition and irrelevant to questions of derivation. I finish with a few random 18 and 19C variations on the theme. Like many other such early modern motifs this one survived into the popular art of the 20C Slovenian beehive boards. The only dedicated discussion I’m aware of is Gretel Wagner, “Braut-Fischen und Freier-Kegeln in Deutschen Stammbüchern” in Berliner Museen , 20. Jahrg., H. 2. (1970), pp. 72-75

Women fishing for women

dated 1578. Bayerisches National Museum, Gr 2665

also dated 1578, from the Schurff album. Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, FB 1075 f.20

Koller auction 20, September 2023, lot 505

from the album of Antoinette de Lngueval, c.1600. In this genteel presentation, the bait is a heart. Kunstbibliothek, Statliche Museen zu Berlin, Lipp OZ 37

from the album of Andreas Huber (dated entries 1587-1609) – again hea are the bait on this frozen river! Stuttgart, WLB, cod. don. 899, f.135v.

fishing for fools! Again she seems to be using a/her heart. Inscriptions in Italian (from Boccaccio) and Latin, from the album of Johann Baptist Buchxor (dated entries 1571-85). Private collection

fishing for fools. from the album of Hans Jakob Auer (dated entries 1581-94). Seibold collection

jointly with sieving

This joint composition seems to have been first designed by the unidentified monogrammist BKGF and published in 1590, then copied by the de Brys and popularised via their print-books Emblemata Saecularia (1596, 1611), ad Proscenium Vitae Humanae (1627)

sieving and fishing for spouses by monogrammist BKGF, 1590. BM 1876,0510.533

from the de Brys’ *Emblemata Saecularia*, (1596, 1611)

France, mid-17C. Paris, BNF, Hennin 2577

Men fishing for women

orphaned leaf offered for sale by Sanctuary Rare Boks of New York, November 2020

from the Bair brothers album (dated entries 1577-92) in the Kunstbibliohek Berlin — *Will sein die lang hin und her fischen / dennoch die rechte nicht erwischen*

Old man tries in vain to catch a woman — from the Weckerlin album, Stuttgart, WLB, cod. hist. oct. 218 f.168r. dated 1596

On the Bridge of Life six different types of late 16C men — Amorous Fools according to the title — fish for frog-like women in the Swamp of Carnal Delights — with role-appropriate baits! The Poet dangles a poem, the Gentleman a …?, the Physician a necklace and two finger-rings, the Student a love-letter (?), the Merchant a purse, and the Craftsman … (?)

Der Jungfrawn Fischerey, published by Altzenbach in Köln in the third quarter of 17C. Nürnberg, Germanisches National Museum , Inv . Nr . 24 602/1293. An impression of the pair to this — Der Jungegesellen Fischerey — is held in the British Library. 1870.d. (164)

Later variations

games piece, Nurnberg c.1740. Inscription: EIN SOLCHER FISCH GEHORT VOR MICH [such a fish will do for me]. Germanisches National Museum HG7396

modern reproduction of 19C original Slovenian beehive-board

Obscene variations

Ihr Schwestern …

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