Amelberga & the Sturgeon: Engraving signed by Isabella Hertsens. No U.S. copies.

Isabella Hertsens. S. Amelberga. Patrooneresse van Temsch. S.l. [Antwerp]: Isabella Hertsens, s.a. [c. 1750]. [11.8 x 9.4 cm], [1] f. engraving. A few stains, minor edge wear, unobtrusive crease, mounting remnants on verso.
 
 
Rare (no U.S. copies) devotional print by the engraver-publisher Isabella Hertsens (1725-52) of Antwerp, one of a handful of named female printmakers working in that city during the first half of the 18th century. 
 
The engraving depicts the nun Amelberga of Temse (741-72) accompanied by her (delightful) saintly attribute, the sturgeon who carried her across the River Scheldt so that she could escape the unwanted advance of the young Charlemagne, her “troublesome stalker” (R. Love, p. 285). 
 
Amelberga became the patron saint of Temse and founded that town’s Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, which can be seen in the background of the engraving. She is shown here receiving the light of the Holy Spirit and being crowned with laurels by an angel. The crown and scepter upon a pillow at Amelberga’s side would seem to represent the earthly power she is about to forsake by riding the sturgeon across the river to Temse.
 
 
This print is also recorded at the University of Antwerp (Ruusbroec Institute Library [Filip Lemmens, “Inventaris van de Antwerpse Prenten met Plaatsgebonden Devoties,” p. 74, nos. 4 a-b]).
 
* E. M. F. Verheggen, Beelden voor Passie & Hartstocht: Bid- en devotieprenten in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, 17de en 18de eeuw; E.-H. van Heurck, “Les images de dévotion Anversoises,” De Gulden Passer, vol. 8 (1930), pp. 67-166, esp. p. 125; R. Love, “‘Torture me, rend me, burn me, kill me!’ Goscelin of Saint-Bertin and the Depiction of Female Sanctity,” in Writing Women Saints in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Paul E. Szarmach, pp. 274-306.