Chasse des Loutres

Authentic original engraving executed in burin after a 16th-century painting by Johannes Stradanus.
Proof on watermarked laid paper, work from the late 16th or early 17th century.
Artist's signature in the plate.
Latin caption in the lower part of the engraving.
Old manuscript translation below the plate mark: "Ainsi se chassent les loutres dans des barques en châne creux. Elles sont frappées dans l'eau avec un trident crochu" ["Thus otters are hunted in boats made of hollow oak. They are struck in the water with a hooked trident"].
Watermark visible by transparency.
The engraving has been mounted and restored with small pieces of old laid paper glued to the edges on the reverse, otherwise fine condition for this very rare engraving.
Johannes Stradanus, known as Giovanni Stradano or Jan van der Straet, was a Flemish painter and engraver, born in Bruges in 1523 and died in Florence on February 11, 1605.
After beginning to learn painting from 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 received as a master in the Antwerp painters' guild. He then began a journey across Europe: in France, then in Italy, where he first stayed in Venice, before settling in Florence. There he worked for Cosimo I de' Medici and collaborated with Giorgio Vasari for the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici, and for that of the hall of Clement VII 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 decoration 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 the great 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.