The funeral procession of Emperor Charles V.

Album, 36 (of 37) etchings, 24 x 34,5 cm (platemarks largest), 29,6 x 18,7 cm (platemarks pl. 1), laid paper with several watermarks (foolscap, Churchill: 351), signed in 2nd plate "Ioannes a Duetecum Lucas Duetecum Fecit" (occ. stain, repaired diagonal tear on 1st plate of Danse Macabre, overall in splendid condition).

Marbl. cardb. covers, leather spine and corners (sl. scratched).

When Charles V died in 1558, he received a modest funeral at the monestary of Yuste, where he had spent the last three years of his life after his abdication in 1555. Notwithstanding, his son and heir, King Philip II, decided to hold a sumptuous funeral procession in Brussels. As to keep a record of the state ceremony, it was immortalised in an ambitious print series etched by Lucas and Johannes Van Doetechum, and first published by Hieronymus Cock and Christofel Plantin in that same year. It is also one of the few works signed on the 2nd plate by the Van Doetecum brothers. The original plates were bought by the Dutch printmaker and publisher Hendrick Hondius, who republished them in 1619, and added 3 plates depicting a Danse Macabre etched by Pieter van der Borcht and Johannes van Doetecum. This edition of the 3rd state (of 3) did not include the title page and introductory text, present in the original Plantin edition. The set of the present lot includes the final plate with the arms of the state and regalia of Charles V. Plate 5 (large Victory ship) is not included.
Ref. New Hollstein (Van Doetecum), 84-117. - Riggs 63-96. - Orenstein, N., "Hendrick Hondius and the Business of Prints in Seventeenth-Century Holland", pp. 196-97, no. 372. - De Pauw-De Veen, "De staten van de Pompa Funebris van Karel V door Johannes en Lucas a Deutecum naar Hieronymus Cock", in Miscelanea Jozef Duverger, Gent 1968, pp. 449-463.