16th Century German Renaissance Allegorical Oil Painting Sexual Health Syphilis by Christoph Schwarz, Circa 1580

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A large & important German Renaissance oil painting, an allegory on good sexual health, by Christoph Schwarz (1545-1592), "A Warning … Read more A large & important German Renaissance oil painting, an allegory on good sexual health, by Christoph Schwarz (1545-1592), "A Warning Against Venereal Disease", circa 1580.

Christoph Schwarz was known to create a wide variety of works, including altarpieces, frescoes, and other oil paintings. A number of Schwarz's work were later turned into engravings by the Netherlandish engraver Johannes I Sadeler (1550-1600), Sadeler had reproduced this work as an engraving in 1590.
The painting depicts a fountain with a statue of Venus and Cupid, and below a seated woman playing a lute. In the centre, an old man identified by the German art historian Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) as the poet Fracastoro holding his poem 'Syphilis sive morbus gallicus'; below a dog is urinating in the stream. On the right, a man also identified by Panofsky as Syphilus the mythical shepherd, he is portrayed bent over drinking from the same stream & another man holding a spear, standing behind him, identified by Panofsky as the Syrian hunter Ilceus.

The poem "Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus" (Syphilis or the French Disease) by the Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro was first published in 1530. It is a didactic work that gave the disease "syphilis" its name.
In the poem, Syphilus is a shepherd who is afflicted with the disease after insulting the sun god.
Fracastoro's work is significant for its early ideas on contagion & disease transmission, which predated modern germ theory.
To the verso is a label "ET-CHENUE, A LA CROIX DE LORRAINE" with a faint pencil name of a pervious owner. The company's history dates back to 1760, when André Chenue acted as royal layetier to Marie-Antoinette exclusively. Chenue was responsible for carefully packaging first the layette (which contained an extensive amount of linen for mother, child, body and crib), then all of the royal linen. The company later became synonymous with the moving & storage & installation of important works of art, the label dates circa 1900.

There are only a handful of the 16th century engravings in museums, including The Metropolitan NY, The Fitzwilliam Museum UK, The British Museum London, Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, The Wellcome Collection London and The University of Cambridge UK.

The painting is from the period and we believe it to be the only one known, the painting has had professional conservation & cleaning by one of North America's skilled practitioners in art restoration & conservation. The painting is housed in an period early 18th century gilded & polychrome wooden frame. This very rare & important 16th century German Renaissance painting is ready to grace your wall. See less