Buchinger, Matthias | A virtuosic manuscript, containing perhaps the tiniest example of Buchinger's writing

Buchinger, Matthias

Fine autograph micro-calligraphic portrait of Queen Anne signed ("Matthew Buchinger"), with Biblical texts incorporated into the drawing and surrounding scrollwork 

Manuscript on vellum (185 x 134 mm), London, 1 May 1718. Tipped to a mat board and matted.

"Perhaps the most ornate of Buchinger's micrographic portraits may also be his earliest. It is a drawing of Queen Anne … that he produced on May 1, 1718. Anne (who had died four years earlier) is portrayed in an oval that is surrounded by a laudatory description, and this is in turn surrounded by curlicue designs revealed (under magnification) to be three chapters from the Book of Kings. On the bodice of her dress is an image of St. George mounted on a horse, slaying the dragon, and in her hair is a continuation of the biblical text, and perhaps the tiniest example yet of Buchinger's writing" (MB, p. 71).

The drawing is signed "London May 1, 1718. This is drawn and Written by me Matthew Buchinger born June 3, 1674, Without Hands & Feet in Anspak in Germany." A virtuosic achievement.

REFERENCE:

Exemplars, pp. 62, 63; MB fig 32; Wordplay 58