Peter Schenck

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Peter Schenck
(German/Dutch, 1660-1713)

A Roman Amphitheatre, 1705

Etching: Sheet, 7 1/2 x 10 1/8 inches; Plate 6 5/8 x 7 3/4 inches

	Provenance: Schrader and Smith, Richmond, Virginia

	The subject of this fine etching is the remains of the amphitheater of Imperial date on the Celian hill, with the adjacent medieval church. It comes from a series entitled Roma Aeterna, published by Schenck in Amsterdam in 1705. Printed on laid paper, our sheet is a fine, rich impression from the 1705 printing, in excellent condition. It is a magnificent print and an important record of an ancient ruin at the beginning of the 18th century. Peter Schenck was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1660 and died in Amsterdam in 1713). He was an etcher, a mezzotint engraver and publisher. Though born in Germany, he moved to Amsterdam while young and is considered a Dutch artist. He became a pupil of his future brother-in-law, Gerard Valck. With Valck he bought the property of the publisher Jan Jansz. in 1683–4. Schenck’s importance lies in his activities as a publisher of portraits and series of topographical prints. Like Valck, he published various series of prints in colour. Except for a few portraits, most of his prints are reproductive. Almost 800 of the total of 986 prints attributed to him are mezzotints. However, most of the prints published under his name are etchings (e.g. the Finding of Moses, Hollstein, no. 987). Schenck successfully divided his business interests between the northern Netherlands and Germany, where he was mainly active in Leipzig. In choice of subject-matter and the selection of the artists whose work is reproduced, Schenck’s prints are representative of the taste predominant in the period between c. 1680 and 1715. After his death, his son Petrus Schenck the younger looked after the German side of the business.