The Black King: Merian’s rare etching after Jacques Bellange.

Matthäus Merian the Elder / Jacques Bellange. Caspar Rex Tarsis. S.l.: “M. Merian fec.” / “Bellange inv.,” s.a. [c. 1615]. Folio [28.9 x 18.6 cm], [1] f. etching on laid paper, dragon watermark, stamps on verso and recto. Thread margins or trimmed to or just inside the platemark, impression a bit gray, chain line toning visible on verso, remnants of mounting on verso.
 
 
Rare print depicting the ‘Black Magus’ Caspar of Tarsis as etched by Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593-1650), a copy in reverse of an elegant design by the virtuoso printmaker Jacques Bellange (c. 1575-1616). Bellange’s ‘Three Magi’ series is today extremely rare, and both it and Merian’s set are rarely found intact, with individual copies of one or another of the Magi being more typically encountered.
 
Bellange did not label his Three Kings, but Merian added calligraphic labes, with this ‘Black Magus’ being called “Caspar, King of Tarsus.” Typically it was Balthazar who was shown as an African (a common occurrence in art from German-speaking lands from at least the late 15th century), but it is not unheard of for that role to be transferred to Caspar (on this, see Paul H. D. Kaplan, The Rise of the Black Magus in Western Art, and the new Balthazar: A Black African King in Medieval and Renaissance Art, K. Collins & B. C. Keene, eds.). 
 
The Three Magi are nearly always depicted visiting the newborn Christ, and so it us unusual to see them presented as stand-alone figures. It German lands the Magi were especially venerated for their apotropaic powers, and one wonders if this popular quality adhered to Merian’s copies of what were originally purely fine art designs by Bellange.
 
This print carries the stamps of the Kunstgeschichtliches Museum der Universitat, Wurzburg (verso; Lugt supplement, 2541c) and the Johann M. von Wagner Stiftung (lower right recto; 2650d). 
 
 
I locate U.S. copies of the print at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art.
 
*L. H. Wüthrich, Das druckgraphische werk von Matthaeus Merian d. Ae. 1966-1996, cat. no. 86 ii; N. Walch, Die Radierungen des Jacques Bellange: Chronologie und kritischer Katalog, cat. no. 26 (as Balthasar) (reverse copy), pp. 196-97; Hollstein German, p. XXV, 103, 19; A. Griffiths & C. Hartley, Jacques Bellange, c.1575-1616: Printmaker of Lorraine, cat. no. 29b, p. 108; J. Thuillier, Jacques de Bellange, cat. no. 55A, p. 240.