A monk hurries towards his monastery with a woman/nun concealed in the sheaf of straw he carries — another enduring Protestant satirical anti-monastic motif which seems to appear first in late 16C alba amicorum, before being picked up by the early 17C print-books [here the Pratum Emblematicum (1617) and Philotheca Corneliana (1619) — SEE BELOW]. By the 18C it appears in all sorts of media, glass, ceramic, metalwork, etc., but in the 19C it re-appears in prints — in England too. Curiously, the original seems to have been an entirely innocent 17C engraved portrait of Father Philippo de Rebaldis a Ravenna engraved by Francesco Villamena in 1598, to which the woman/nun in the sheaf was added
album of Bernhard Praetorius (Schultheiss) Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, I Qc 63, f.55, dated 1596 – cheekily captioned Peregrinatio est vita nostra [our life is a pilgrimage]Egger album now in Pragfrom the Pratum Emblematicum 1617from the Philotheca Corneliana 1619engraved bone inlay on German rifle dated 1642carved wood tobacco rasp, French, early 18C inscribed PR[OVISI]ON POVR LE COVVEN Zwischengold glass, Bohemia 1730×50, sold Bonhams 3 Nov 2016, lot 57frisch Proviant vors convent (Altdorf, 1743) GNM Hs. 113894 album of Johann Wilhelm Brenner, c.1750 — art market18C scent-bottle, Grassi MuseuFather Philippo de Rebaldis a venna engraved by Francesco Villamena (1598). BM. V.10.56 – model for the 19C prints Issued by Carington Bowles (London, 1760s), BM. 2010,7081.3148French, early 18C silver and mother-of-pearl snuff-box – sold Bonhams, 18 Oct. 2023, lot 43gingerbread mould
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