Maria als Koningin van de Hemel met het Christuskind als Salvator Mundi - Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert

A detailed Baroque engraving by Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert depicting the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child as the Salvator Mundi.

This engraving by Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert depicts the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven, cradling the Christ Child who holds the orb of the world as the Salvator Mundi. Bolswert was a master of the burin, known for his ability to translate the painterly qualities of Flemish Baroque masters into the medium of print. His work often involved the reproduction of compositions by Peter Paul Rubens and Erasmus Quellinus, the latter of whom is credited as the painter of the original composition here.

The composition follows traditional iconographic conventions of the period. Mary is seated in a dignified posture, her gaze directed towards the viewer, while the Christ Child sits upon her lap. He holds the globus cruciger, a symbol of his dominion over the world. The background features classical architectural elements, including a column and a draped curtain, which provide a sense of spatial depth and formal gravity. A bird, likely a goldfinch, rests on a stone ledge to the right, a common motif in religious art representing the Passion of Christ.

Bolswert employs a sophisticated system of cross-hatching and varied line weights to render the textures of the drapery, the softness of the figures, and the reflective surface of the orb. The play of light across the figures creates a sense of volume and presence, characteristic of the Baroque interest in dramatic realism. The Latin inscription at the base provides context regarding the dedication and the theological nature of the scene. This print demonstrates the technical precision required to convey complex tonal ranges using only black ink on paper, a hallmark of the seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish printmaking tradition.