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Caspar

Etched by: Matthäus Merian I (German, 1593–1650)
After: Jacques Bellange (French (Lorraine), about 1575–1616)
Published by: Jacob van der Heyden (Netherlandish, worked Germany, 1573–1645)
about 1615 or after

Medium/Technique Etching
Dimensions Sheet: 28.9 x 18.7 cm (11 3/8 x 7 3/8 in.)
Platemark: 28.7 x 18.5 cm (11 5/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
Credit Line Gift of William H. Schab Gallery
Accession Number40.224
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints
This print bears an inscription that it is a portrait of Melchior, King of Nubia. Robert-Dumesnil also identified the Bellange print of which this a reverse copy as Melchior. However, Walch and subsequent scholars consider the subject to be Caspar.

Catalogue Raisonné Hollstein 18, ii/ii; Wüthrich 85; Thuillier (Bellange) 55A; Walch (Bellange) 27 (copy in reverse); Worthen & Reed (Bellange) 36; Griffiths & Hartley (Bellange) 31b
Marks Verso, lower center, stamped in brown ink, the mark of the MFA (Lugt 282)
ProvenanceWilliam H. Schab Master Prints and Drawings, Inc., New York; their gift to the MFA May 9, 1940