File:The Small Landscapes (BM 2011,7073.1).jpg

Height: 142 millimetres

Width: 199 millimetres

This is the frontispiece to a series of forty-eight numbered etchings showing landscapes, views of villages, farms, gates and castles; for the complete set see 2011,7073.1-49. The first four etchings of this series are by Pieter van der Borcht (New Hollstein 203-206), probably made around 1601 for this edition. Although the frontispiece is not lettered with the printmaker's name, it is possible Borcht etched this plate (for a comparison see the rendering of the trees in plates nos.1-4). The other forty-four etchings are made by the brothers Johannes and Lucas van Doetecum (New Hollstein 118-161) and were earlier published by Hieronymus Cock as two sets in 1559 (Multifariarum Casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa: 'Delineations of buildings and landscapes of every kind, diligently depicted from life') and 1561 (Praediorum villarum et rusticarum casularum icones elegantissimae ad vivum in aere deformatae: 'Most refined depictions of estates, country houses and village dwellings, depicted from life in copper'). The designs of these landscapes have been attributed to Cornelis Cort (named as designer on the title-page of this second edition), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (named as designer in a series of copies by Claes Jansz. Visscher, see New Hollstein on Bruegel nos.A112-A137), Hans Bol, Hieronymus Cock and others; no consensus has been reached amongst scholars so the unidentified designer has provisionally been called 'Master of the Small Landscapes'. In the first edition published by Cock two images were printed from one plate with a large margin in between; the prints would then be trimmed and bound in albums. A complete series of untrimmed impressions is in Warsaw. Philips Galle cut the plates in two and reduced their size for the second edition in 1601; he also added the four etchings by Borcht with a new title-page and numbered the plates 1 to 48. This extended series was later published (in different order) by Theodoor Galle (before 1633) and by Johannes Galle (before 1676); see New Hollstein on Doetecum for a more elaborate description of the different editions of this series. The prints from the BM set are trimmed and pasted on large deckled sheets of paper (566 by 330 mm); without watermark but dated to the end of the eighteenth century. Some prints such as the frontispiece contain a 'Gothic P' watermark which can be dated to the last decades of the sixteenth century. The paper onto which the prints are printed on probably comes from the Rhine region. They are leather-bound (binder's board and brown leather) and the endpapers contain the 18th century watermark of the Dutch papermill 'C & I Honig' (30 by 170 mm), named 'De Vergulde Bijenkorf' (The Gilded Beehive) in Zaandijk. An ex-libris of a certain 'W.N.M. Van der Ham' is pasted on the inside of the front cover. (With thanks to Peter Bower for his opinion on the papers and their watermarks)

This series of landscape etchings is rare (other sets of the second edition are e.g. in Brussels, Vienna and Braunschweig) and played a great role in the development of depicting landscapes in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century: the focus on the Flemish countryside (both humble dwellings as stately mansions) and the high quality of the etching technique make this series very important and influential for landscape as a genre. An incomplete set of 26 prints in Braunschweig (inv.nos.ZL 83/5950,5-30) shows the same 'Gothic P' watermark but the prints are each printed on separate sheets (176 by 230 mm) and not trimmed (information from Anna Seidel and Thomas Döring). Another set in Brussels (inv.no.S.V 76691-76737) is bound in a small album, one print on one sheet containing small margins of 1.5-3 cms (information from Joris Van Grieken). Other sets can be found in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, among other places.