FINE ANTIQUE PRINTS

Pag: 11”Die Hoch=Furftliche Residencz und Garden zu Passau auf St. Georgenberg”

Johann Christophe Volckamer was a wealthy Nuremberg merchant. He was part of the new monied class of gentlemen who could afford to maintain hot houses (green-houses) where their gardeners grew tropical plants year-round despite the harsh winters of northern Europe. Volckamer’s influential botanical work titled, Nurnbergische Hesperides (“Heavenly Fruits”) was published in Nuremberg between 1708 and 1714. Many aspects of the style of Volckamer’s engravings exhibit his familiarity with the monograph on citrus produced by Giovanni Ferrari’s half a century before, but Volckamer’s images include remarkable backgrounds which are the hallmark of his work. His team of artists and engravers presented monumentally scaled prize varieties of fruit floating above far distant yet remarkably detailed landscapes of idealized European palaces, gardens and bucolic views or these of Palladian built or inspired palazzi located in the Northern Italian towns of Vicenza, Padua, Rovigo, Verona and Treviso. The striking images are appreciated by modern day collectors as records of garden planning as well as for their unusual compositions and wonderful descriptions of Renaissance era buildings.

Features a detailed architectural and landscape bird’s-eye view of the St. Georgenberg property in Passau that sits on the St. Georgenberg hill high above the Danube.

Engraver was T.G Beckh

14 x 17 inches, sheet.
Engraving with modern hand coloring.