Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 – Augsburg 1767). Obsidio et expugnatio (see below) Halicarnassi, urbis totius cariæ capitis. / The Siege (and Conquest) of the Capital Halicarnassus by Alexander the Great. The battle turmoil – with boar hound chasing along just in front lower left above of Ridinger’s inscription as such one also swims along on the 331 first Tigris Crossing and on an Alexander drawing of 1723, for both see below, “Ridinger hounds” also guard the signature, while in the riding school from 1722 two boar hounds watch over the exercises of Th. 620 – according to the following subtext in the first year of Alexander’s campaign, 334 BC, with Alexander on surely Bukephalos right in middle distance, giving orders to two warriors on foot. Engraving by Johann Daniel Herz I (1693 Augsburg 1754). Early 1720s. Inscribed: LXXXVII (platemark upper center) / Ioh. Elias Ridinger invent. et delin. (in the text margin lower left) / Senior Iohann Daniel Herz sculp et exc Aug. V. (in the subject margin lower right), otherwise in Latin-German as above and below. Sheet size 75.5 x 91.8 cm.
Provenance: Th. Reich auf Biehla (?), his sale Leipsic 1894; Counts Faber-Castell, their Ridinger sale 1958 with its lot no. 65 in red in the lower margin between the text columns.
Thienemann 917 + Supplement pp. 296 ff. ( “a sheet occuring now only rarely ”, 1856! ); Schwarz 917 (recte state II of II instead of state I); Reich auf Biehla Collection 917 (“Without platemark, mounted [like here, too]. Fine composition. Extremely rare”, 1894); Helbing XXXIV (Works by J. E. and M. E. Ridinger, 1900) 1488 (“Rare”).
Nagler, Ridinger, XIII, p. 162 ( “rich composition” ); Thieme-Becker XXVIII, 308-311: VII. Miscellania: (Two) battles of Alexander the Great.
Not among the extensive Ridinger inventories at Weigel, Art Stock Catalogue I-XXVIII (1838/57) , Silesian Ridinger Collection at Boerner XXXIX (1885) , Coppenrath (1889/90) + Schwerdt (1928/35) , as then also here through the decades present for the first time and likewise without knowledge of any other presence on the market.
Second state of the monumental sheet – pendant to the 331 Tigris Crossing – after modification of the former inscription “Cum Privileg. Sac. Cæs. Majest. / Ioh. Daniel Hertz sculpsit / Hæred. Ieremiæ Wolffij excud. Aug. Vind.” as erroneously described as second state by Schwarz per 917a of marvelous printing condition of shining chiaroscuro with laterally tiny margin around the subject edge, below 3 mm below of the text and at top 5 mm above of the subject edge with the number not mentioned by Thienemann + Schwarz. – Old doubling with smoothening of former vertical center fold and of ultimately very good general condition as not the norm with such difficult-to-preserve oversizes – the impression yet from but one ( sic ! ) plate ! – Illegible blind stamp between the two columns of the subtext and aforementioned lot no. there in red. A small slight overinking at the left lower subject edge ending in one word each of the first two Latin text lines.
Early work of Ridinger created soon after his return – to be set not before 1719 – from the three-year stay with Baron (so Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie contrary to Kilian/Thienemann: Count) Metternich in Regensburg, when “all connoisseurs … admired his skill and strength in both historic and animal pieces” (Th.) while he nevertheless not yet worked in copper himself. So “at first there (he) painted several historical representations for the art dealer Dan. Herz” (Nagler; recte Jeremias Wolff, additionally proven for Herz, too, only 1732, see below), of these concerning Alexander besides the present Siege of Halicarnassus the 331 crossing of the Tigris at Bedzabde (Th. 918) for the encounter with Darius (III, last of the Persian kings) with the decisive battle at Gaugamela near Arbela October 1st. Both qualified by Nagler, who erroneously claims the crossing for the Granicus, thus knew the sheet at least without its subtext only, as “rich compositions”, they are at the same time marvelous examples of early maturity and perfection as already repeatedly stated by example of other early works.
Offer no. 14,869 / price on request