Preparatory drawing for a print. With notes to engraver. Chalked for transfer.

[Preparatory drawing for engraving] / [Virgin Mary]. [Preparatory drawing, with notes to engraver]. S.l. [German Catholic lands]: s.n., s.a. [18th-century]. [16.2 x 9.4 cm], [1] f. pen-and-ink line drawing on laid paper, with manuscript notes, chalked on verso for transfer of design. Minor staining and edge wear, remnants of mounting on verso.
 
 
A very rare survival from the production of devotional engravings in 18th-century southern Germany or Austria. This preparatory drawing—depicting a cult statue of the Virgin & Child within an elaborate rococo frame—was produced for a printmaker to use in engraving a new copperplate. 
 
The verso of the drawing is chalked to transfer the image to the copperplate. At the foot of the engraving is a note to the engraver, which reads, “The right foot should be placed a little forward, but in the drawing the left one, so that the right one appears in the print” (“Der rechte Fuß sollte ein wenig vorgesetzt werden, in der Zeichnung aber der Zeichnung der linke, daß in den Druck der rechte kommt”). This concerns altering one of the Christ Child’s feet. The writer tries to make clear which foot he is referring to given that the image will, of course, be reversed (on transferring designs to printing plates, see A. Griffiths, pp. 34-8).
 
The area meant to contain the engraved text is blank—a specialist lettering engraver likely would have been tasked with cutting text into the copperplate—and so it is not clear exactly which Marian statue is depicted here. It shares similarities with Marian statue at the pilgrimage church of Weihenlinden in Bavaria (see H. Bleibrunner, pp. 76-7).
 
 
*A. Griffiths, The Print Before Photography: An Introduction to European Printmaking 1550-1820; H. Bleibrunner, Andachstbilder aus Altbayern.