La mésaventure du chasseur

Authentic original engraving executed with burin after a 16th-century drawing by Johannes Stradanus.
Impression on watermarked laid paper, work from the late 16th or very early 17th century.
Artists' signatures within the plate.
Latin caption in the lower portion of the engraving.
Manuscript translation in old handwriting below the plate mark: "Souvent un chasseur tombe sans prendre garde dans des cavernes ou des grottes couvertes d'herbes par dessus d'où ses compagnons ne peuvent le retirer, mais il meurt malheureusement et demeure la pature des serpents qui y sont et des hydres" ["Often a hunter falls unawares into caverns or grottoes covered with grass above, from which his companions cannot retrieve him, but he dies miserably and remains food for the serpents and hydras dwelling there"].
Watermark visible by transparency.
The margins of the engraving have been backed with small pieces of old laid paper pasted along the edges on the reverse, otherwise fine condition for this very rare engraving.
Johannes Stradanus, called Giovanni Stradano or Jan van der Straet, is a Flemish painter and engraver, born in Bruges in 1523 and died in Florence on February 11, 1605.
After beginning to learn painting with his father, and following the latter's death, he continued his training in the workshop of Maximiliaan Frank (from 1535 to 1537), then in that of Pieter Aertsen in Antwerp (from 1537 to 1540). In 1545, he was admitted as master to the guild of Antwerp painters. He then began a journey across Europe: to France, then to Italy, where he first stayed in Venice before settling in Florence. There he worked for Cosimo I de' Medici and collaborated with Giorgio Vasari on the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici, and on that of the Clement VII room in the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1565, he was part of the teams of painters and sculptors charged, under the direction of Giorgio Vasari, with creating the gigantic decorations planned for the entry into Florence of Joanna of Austria, on the occasion of her marriage to Francesco I de' Medici. Greatly influenced by the Mannerists, including Michelangelo, Johannes Stradanus contributed to the development of grand Italian history painting. He painted several altarpieces for Florentine churches. He also stayed in Rome from 1550 to 1553 and in Naples in 1576. After a stay in Antwerp in 1578, he devoted a large part of his activity to engraving.
Philippe Galle, born in Haarlem in 1537 and died in Antwerp in March 1612, is a Flemish engraver, member of a famous family of engravers. He practiced copperplate engraving, drawing, print dealing, publishing and writing. He trained with Hieronymus Cock in Antwerp, where he engraved drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, notably the series of the Seven Deadly Sins. He then became the engraver of Maarten van Heemskerck. From 1557, he owned his own workshop, which was frequented by his sons, Theodore and Cornelius, as well as by his son-in-law, Adriaen Collaert, the Wierix brothers, Hendrick Goltzius, Crispin de Passe the Elder and other members of the Collaert family. His workshop was at the center of Antwerp print production. Philippe Galle created some of his most admirable works based on designs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (The Alchemist, 1558), by Jan van der Straet, by Franz Floris (The Daughters of Lot) and by Gillis Congnet (Aenevm Saecvlvm and the four ages of humanity, 1575).
Adrian Collaert, born in Antwerp in 1565 and died in 1618, was part of a great family of engravers. Trained in the workshop of his father-in-law Philippe Galle, he began with copperplate engraving before specializing in burin work.