Art Institute of Chicago

Saint Paul's from the South Showing the Spire

Wenceslaus Hollar

Date

1657

Medium

Etching in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Bohemia

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Wenceslaus Hollar worked in London for the better part of two periods, 1637–41 and 1652–77, and these were two of the most productive of his printmaking career. He etched a variety of subjects, including landscapes, and reproduced artworks in the collection of his host, the Earl of Arundel. Hollar also documented Saint Paul’s Cathedral from the inside and out, including this imagined exterior view from before a lightning bolt destroyed the spire in 1561. He was still living in London during the Great Fire of September 1666, when the whole structure burned. Indeed, several of Hollar’s etching plates from this project were lost in the fire.

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