Virgil Solis

Virgil Solis, portrayed by his journeyman Balthasar Jenichen after his death. Above left and right the monograms used by Solis.

Virgil Solis , also Virgilius Solis (* 1514 in Nuremberg ; † August 1, 1562 ibid) was a German draftsman and engraver .

Life

Virgil Solis grew up as the son of a painter who moved to Nuremberg. During his time as a journeyman, he certainly visited Augsburg , but perhaps also Zurich and Rome . The latter is believed to be due to its mixture of classifying and baroque ornamentation. He married in 1539, became a master craftsman in 1540 and began to develop unusual productivity in his workshop with numerous journeymen, soon including his own sons. His total oeuvre amounts to 700 woodcuts and 1,300 copper engravings. “An output of over 2,000 prints and drawings.”: Due to his preparatory work and the good training of his helpers, the workshop was able to produce something new a good ten years after his death in 1562, such as the illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses (183 woodcuts) and the illustrated Luther Bible (140 woodcuts). His monogram, a V with an S intertwined in the right leg, became a workshop symbol after his death.

Virgil Solis: Fall of Phaeton (from Ovid's Metamorphoses). Clearly separated picture and passe-partout.

Set in the same mat: The story of Pygmalion - three phases (prayer to Venus, transformation of the statue, the two become a couple) in one picture.

Colonel of the Landsknechte ( engraving by Virgil Solis)

In order to be able to carry out the abundance of his orders, Solis used increasingly rationalizing measures. He designed around half a dozen passe-partouts for the 170 Ovid illustrations , i.e. frames filled with scrollwork, putti , animals and herbal elements, into which he inserted the various illustrations. For the portraits of princes he sawed a block of wood and then used the lower part for other portraits as well. With this serial production, Solis proved to be a skilful and resourceful rationalizer in satisfying the massively increasing need for images in the early modern era.

Through his pass sequences with deciduous, rolling and rolling mill, cups and use pieces Solis became a much copied template supplier Gold and silver , for engravers , chasers , Tauschierer and Nielleure through his illustrations, with its princes and Söldnerbildnisse, his heraldic compilations , his standard series (planets, muses , temperaments , seasons, months, liberal arts , etc.), his landscapes, representations of rarities, bookplates and playing cards, he was one of the best-known, most popular and most widely used illustrators of his time. Balthasar Jenichen rightly had his master say under the portrait:

The artists call me father, I was able to serve in (en),
with moln, piercing, illuminating, with tearing, ezn and viesiren.

Solis, for his part, used famous models, especially Dürer's woodcuts, without scruples . But also by Hans Sebald Beham , Peter Flötner , Heinrich Aldegrever , Georg Pencz , Martin Schongauer , Hans Brosamer , Francesco Marcolini , Theodor Galle , Hans Holbein the Younger , Albrecht Altdorfer , Augustin Hirschvogel , Urs Graf , Niklaus Manuel Deutsch , Jacques du Cerceau and He allowed himself to be inspired by Cornelis Floris , whereby he transferred the templates independently. In doing so, "he switched freely with foreign ideas, varied the suggestions drawn from them, grouped and re-composed and finally made something new out of it, which he breathed his spirit into."

With increasing work pressure, of course, the number of unfamiliar hands that Solis had to use in order to fulfill all orders on time also increased. After his death, the workshop continued to benefit from his templates and his good name for a long time, especially since his widow had married the journeyman Balthasar Jenichen. His actual heir and successor, however, was Jost Ammann , who had come to Nuremberg a year before Solis' death and settled there permanently.

Auctions

• 1825 in Nuremberg: 1570 from the workshop † Virgil Solis: “In a rich frame decorated with figures and coats of arms, in the foreground of a landscape stands the Savior on the cross, kneeling on his trunk on the left, Caspar Vorteilel (councilor from Emperor Carl V ) with him his five sons. For ... "

Works (selection)

• Several good conterfect foliage art. 1553 (templates for the goldsmiths' driving and punching work).
• Passio vnsers Lords Jhesu Christi. Drawn from the four evangelists etc. Valentin Geyssler, Nuremberg 1553.
• Wappenbüchlein in honor of the Rom. Kay. and kings Published again in 1555, 1882 in the Hirthschen Liebhaberbibliothek.
• Biblia, that's the entire Heylige Schrifft Teutsch D. Mart. Lut. Published by Sigmund Feyerabend, Frankfurt am Main, 1560 ( urn : nbn: de: bsz: 31-62174 digitized).
• P. Ovidii Metamorphosis Or: Wonderful and strange description of the people, animals and other creatures change etc., all poets, painters, goldsmiths, sculptors and lovers of the noble poetry and the most modern arts useful and funny to read. Sigmund Feyerabend, Frankfurt am Main 1563, 1581

literature

• Paul Johannes Rée:  Solis, Virgil . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 567-570.
• Ilse O'Dell-Franke:  Solis, Virgil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , pp. 552 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Virgil Solis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Virgil Solis  - Sources and full texts

• All 183 illustrations by Virgil Solis from the P. Ovidii Metamorphosis - Edition by Sigmund Feyerabendt, Frankfurt 1581
• Virgil Solis at the Getty Museum
• Literature by and about Virgil Solis in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ The large artist lexicon by PW Hartmann. , accessed June 29, 2014
2. ^ The J. Paul Getty Museum. ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 29, 2014. 
3. ↑ Fritz Tr. Schulz: Solis, Virgil . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 31 : Siemering – Stephens . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1937, p. 248-253 .
4. ^ Hans Albrecht von Derschau: Directory of the rare art collections - 1825 . In: Directory of the rare art collections ... of the then deceased ... Mr. Hans Albrecht von Derschau, which are to be auctioned in Nuremberg ... for payment in cash . Schmidmer, 1825, p. 84 , 1570, No. 42 ( books.google.de ).