JOHANN JUSTIN PREISLER

1698 — Nurenberg — 1738

Set of Six Drawings after Classical Intaglio Gems

all in red chalk of vertical oval format inscribed on their versoes as to stone type of original w varying measurements: Putto Riding a Dolphin is 5 3/4 x 4 3/8", Janus Head is 5 1/8 x 4 1/8; Standing Winged Putto is5 3/4 x 4 3/8";
Seated Hornblower with Two Servile Women is 5 5/8 x 4 5/8"; Bust of a King is 5 1/2 x 4 3/8".
Bust of Minerva is 5 3/8 x 4 1/4" and inscribed: Intaglio in cornio La Bella;

provenance:
Harry Bober, died 1988 in NY, who purchased a large group of these intaglios in London from a private collector; by descent to Jonathan Bober, Austin TX.

The identification of Preisler as author of this group of drawings is assured as many in the original group acquired by Harry Bober1 are signed and all exhibit the same technique exactly. Preisler was in Italy - Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples - from 1724 until 1731 executing drawings after classical statues and gems for the collector Baron Philipp von Stosch. Stosch sought to have his collection of antiquities illustrated and catalogued in a large tome and towards that end Preisler made meticulous drawings like the present so that engravers could replicate them precisely.

1

Harry Bober was a scholar of medieval art who taught for many years at the Institute of Fine Art, NY University. He wrote or edited several books and published numerous articles on the art, architecture and historiography of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance period. His most famous works included the editing of the two-volume ''Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages: English Libraries,'' (1953). He also wrote ''Medieval Objects in the Guennal Collection'' (1975) and the essay ''Reappraisal of Rayonnant Architecture,'' which explains the legitimacy of that architectural style.