2085) Matthaus Merian Sr. (1593-1650), Slovakia: "Art - View of Pressburg - (present day Bratislava)": Slovenská pošta, a. s. (Slovak Post) has issued a postage stamp of € 2.20 depicting the famous work: Date of Stamp issue: 18.10.2021:
About Art - Matthaus Merian (1593 – 1650) - Slovakia:
Matthäus Merian Sr. (1593–1650), originally a Swiss engraver working in Frankfurt am Main, is best known in Slovakia for this “Víew of Pressburg” (present day - Bratislava).
It was the only work that depicted the territory of, present day Slovakia, that he included in his impressive historical-geographical book titled - "Archontologia cosmica", published in Frankfurt in 1638.
In 1536, as a consequence of the Ottoman expansion, Pressburg became the new capital and coronation city of the Kingdom of Hungary.
The view shown in the work is equally important, as it is one of the best-known and most beautiful views of Bratislava. It is also significant as it was the first and exemplary view of the city from the North, thus balancing the views from the South, from the Danube, created more than 50 years earlier.
In his time, Matthäus Merian was one of the most prolific creators and publishers, not only in Germany, but in the whole of Europe, which allowed him to employ experienced printmakers for his commercially successful projects, whose numbers grew constantly.
On the other hand, he frequently and consciously reduced the usual trio of signatures seen on prints – the creator of the original work, the executive printmaker and the publisher – down to his own name, endowing it with the status of a company brand, and, therefore, the work of his colleagues remained anonymous. That is also the chief reason who originally created the work remained obscure in the mists of time.
One can only assume that the original was an older work, as in its year of publication the "Castle" was undergoing the “Pálffy reconstruction” (1635–1649) and was being rebuilt with as a "castello", with a similar outline to the one it has today.
The Stamp:
Both the high-quality of the original and its graphical processing, precise and with great detail, form the basis for the concept of the stamp using its distinctive detail.
Nevertheless, in its execution the engraver of the stamp was not able to “copy” the original in its entirety, as he had to reduce its size.
His concept, however, comes very close to a “reproduction” of the print.
This issue of the postage stamp is enriched by a portrait of Matthäus Merian Sr. on the First Day Cover (FDC) overprint created in conformity with the engraving of Joachim von Sandrart (1608 – 1688) and on FDC cancellation is seen a detail of a walking pedestrian taken from a “View of Pressburg”.
Technical details:
Issue Date: 18.10.2021
Designer: Rudolf Cigánik
Illustrator: Rudolf Cigánik
Printer: Tiskárna Hradištko, s.r.o.
Size: 54.4 mm x 44.4 mm
Stamp Value: € 2.20
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Santosh Khanna has commented:
ReplyDelete"Very well said. Thanks for sharing."
Thank you so much, Khanna sahab.
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