Severed head amulet: Unrecorded 18th-century engraving on vellum.
[Amulet] / [Relics]. Vera effigies S. Anastasii Mart ordinis Carmelitarum cuius aspect fugari daemones morbosq[ue] curare acta Secundi Concilii Nicaeno testatur. S.l. [Antwerp]: Io. V. Sande, [c. 1675-1717]. [6.5 x 4.5], [1] f. engraving in contemporary hand-color. Rubbing, dustiness and edge wear, a few pinholes.
Unrecorded 18th-century amuletic engraving—here printed on vellum and decorated with contemporary hand-color—depicting the head of Saint Anastasius (d. 628). The Latin text states that this is the “The true effigy of St. Anastasius, Martyr of the Carmelite order, whose appearance is said to drive away demons and cure diseases, as attested by the acts of the Second Council of Nicaea.”
The head of St. Anastasius the Persian has been preserved as a relic at Speyer Cathedral since 1047, and before that it long resided at Tre Fontane in Rome, where today the saint’s body remains. In the 18th-century, images of the head of Anastasius were often used as amulets against evil of various sorts. Such printed amulets, intended to be carried on one’s person, have today become very rare.
The example offered here was printed from a copperplate engraved by Jan Baptist van den (II) Sande (f. 1675-1713).
The use of vellum here is of note. Vellum was, compared to earlier periods, rather rarely used in 17th- and 18th-century drawing/painting/printmaking, e.g., by exceptional artists such as Rembrandt, who experimented with exotic supports to achieve subtle visual effects. “Vellum was otherwise only used in luxury book printing (a relic of medieval manuscripts) and, at the opposite extreme, for devotional images, as it was the only material strong enough to withstand the usage it received in the hand of the poorest of the faithful, who carried images of saints on their person as amulets” (Griffiths, p. 32, and see p. 379 for the 18th-century peddler trade of vellum holy images).
I have been unable to locate another copy of this print (not located by OCLC or KVK; and it is not in the Museum Catharijneconvent [Utrecht], or Ruusbroec Institute at the University of Antwerp, which are the major repositories of devotional images of this sort).
* 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; p. 143; Anthony Griffiths, The Print before Photography: An Introduction to European Printmaking 1550-1820; Horst Heres, Das Private Andachtsbild: Devotionalie-Andenken-Amulett; Karin Leitner, “‘... außer meiner Person kein anderer Kupferstecher in Gratz befündlich ...’: Christoph Dietell (1690–1764),” Acta Historiae Artis Slovenica, vol. 10 (2005), pp. 95-118; Walter Neunteufl, “Christoph Dietell, ein steirischer Kartograph,” Blätter für Heimatkunde, vol. 48, no. 3 (1974), pp. 99-102; Carmela Vircillo Franklin, The Latin dossier of Anastasius the Persian: Hagiographic Translations and Transformations; Bernard Flusin, Saint Anastase le Perse et l’histoire de la Palestine au début du VIIe siècle; Ekkart Sauser, “Anastasios der Perser,” Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. 14, p. 707.