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 for the later prints’ monk 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 (below).
album of Bernhard Praetorius (Schultheiss), this page dated 1596. Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, I Qc 63, f.55 – cheekily captioned, Peregrinatio est vita nostra [our life is a pilgrimage]from the album of Matthias Egger, dated entries 1618-30. Prague, Narodni Muzeum, Knihovna Ms. X G 79from the Pratum Emblematicum (Leipzig 1617)from the Philotheca Corneliana (Frankfurt 1619)engraved bone inlay on German rifle dated 1642carved wood tobacco rasp, French, early 18C, inscribed PR[OVISI]ON POVR LE COVVENZwischengold glass, Bohemia 1730×50, sold Bonhams, 3 Nov 2016, lot 57labelled frisch Proviant vors convent , this page dated Altdorf, 1743. Nurnberg, GNM, Hs. 113894from the album of Johann Georg Bauer, dated entries 1748-58. Seibold Collection [from Seibold 2021 vol.2]. from the album of Johann Wilhelm Brenner, c.1750 — on the art market in 200618C scent-bottle, Leipzig, Grassi Museumfür Angewandte Kunst Father Philippo de Rebaldis a Ravenna engraved by Francesco Villamena (1598). London, British Museum, V.10.56 – model for the 19C printsIssued by Carington Bowles (London, 1760s), London, British Museum, 2010,7081.3148French, early 18C silver and mother-of-pearl snuff-box – sold Bonhams, 18 Oct. 2023, lot 43gingerbread mould
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