The Descent of Christ into Limbo
c. 1561
Artist, Netherlandish, active c. 1551/1572
Publisher, Netherlandish, 1518 - 1570

Artwork overview
-
Medium
engraving on laid paper
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
plate: 23.5 × 29.5 cm (9 1/4 × 11 5/8 in.)
sheet: 25.5 × 31.8 cm (10 1/16 × 12 1/2 in.) -
Accession
2019.114.1
-
Catalogue Raisonné
New Hollstein, no. 7, State i/ii
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Rev. John Burleigh James [1811-1891], Shropshire, England; Hope and Julian Edison [1929-2017], St. Louis; gift to the NGA, 2019.
Associated Names
Bibliography
1993
The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Pieter Bruegel, Nadine Orenstein author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 7, state i/ii.
Inscriptions
in plate, in image, at bottom center: .PAME. [monogram of Pieter van der Heyden]; in plate, in image, at lower right: .H. cock excu.; in plate, in image, at lower right: Bruegel Invent; in plate, in margin below image: TOBLITE Ȏ PORTE, CAPITA VESTEA, ATTOLLIMINI FORES SEMPITERNE, ET INGREDIETVR REX ILLE GLORIOSVS (free version of Psalm 24:9: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.) [translation from Nadine Orenstein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 210.]; on verso, in graphite at lower center: Van Bast. 119; on verso, in graphite at bottom center: DTIIADBH
Markings
Rev. John Burleigh James (Lugt 1425)
Watermarks
present but not identified