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Design for a Bookplate or a Glass Etching

Creator

German Artist · 1514–1562

With an output of over 2,000 prints and drawings, Virgil Solis was one of Nuremberg's most prolific printmakers and book illustrators. His origins and training are unclear, though his father may have been a painter. He became a master in 1539 and often signed himself as a painter, but no evidence of that career exists. Solis aimed to produce popular, commercially successful prints on many subjects

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Date: about 1550–1560
Medium: Black ink and gray wash
Culture: German
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

The harp on the shield of the coat of arms indicates that the elderly king with flowing locks and beard on top of a helmet is the biblical King David. The abbreviation *O.H.L.* might refer to a family name or a motto, while the *V.S.*was one of several monograms used by the artist Virgil Solis. Scholars do not know the exact purpose of this design, but they believe it may have been made for a bookplate or an etching on glass. Drawings for objects such as tapestries, metal vessels, oil lamps, and furniture exist from the 1500s onwards in far greater numbers than from earlier eras. Scholars believe that this substantial increase suggests not only the important role of drawings in the design process but also their new prestige as collector's items. Drawing was an essential tool for the communication of an artist's ideas to patrons and craftsmen.

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