Judging The Virginity Of The Bride - The Sheets - Biblical Print - Scheuchzer - Physica Sacra 1731-1735 - Classical Latin Version

Treasures from the Biblical Art Collection, The Grand Review.  Print size 16 x 24, works with a 16 x 24 frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer was a true polymath during the Age of Enlightenment.  His early 18th century monumental illustrated work, Physica Sacra, celebrates the wonders of the Bible and the wonders of science, in many cases seeking to reconcile the two with his own views of how things must truly be.  That legacy leaves us with a fairly amazing combination of very traditional renditions of great moments from the Bible and others seen through the lens of his era and interpreted at times differently now.

We have been collecting leaves from disbound editions of the Physicra Sacra for years.  Putting them through our process, we feature two distinct versions of each image.  One featuring the classical Latin text and discarding the ornate Old German, the other doing just the opposite.  We've found our choices have brought a certain harmony to the layout, much more suitable now as a large print.

There is much that I will not acquire, restore and present to the public.  This is my company, and in my house I am the arbiter of what is amazing and exciting, what is beautiful, what is compelling and sometimes, what is challenging yet still within the parameters of taste that drives me forward every day.

This print is problematic for me because I am so on the fence about it, and the fence has a strand of barbed wire tacked along the ridge.

Prints in our collection often reach for the macabre, an example being Jules Tavernier's The Christmas Dream, but there is almost always that wry Charles Addams twist that reassures as well as entertains.  This print comes from Deuteronomy 22, verses 13-21 that discusses appalling behavior on the part of a new husband towards his wife, his punishment for that behavior, and far worse, the punishment for his wife if her family cannot prove her virginity.

When I first acquired this original, along with a modest collection of Scheuchzer's biblical illustrations, I understood immediately that the many men pictured were examining the bedsheets after the wedding night, looking for signs of the virgin's blood.  The artist's choice of presenting this tableau in front of and underneath a giant vaginal gateway was to me, at the time, comical and ridiculous, and the kind of thing that might induce a smile and a proper double take if it had the right environment to hang in. 

Then, as I do with all the images I work with, I hit the internet for a little research.  This is part of the process that I truly enjoy, as I allow for side trips and distractions as whims and interests carry me here and there.  This time, I was plunged almost instantly into a rage.  I had no idea that such sick and oppressive practices are still common.  Not rare.  Common.  The completely crazy websites and postings and news stories related to this topic were so disappointing that I sank into dark place... a real funk.  You just want to snatch the world up by the lapels and holler...

Anyway, all that said, this print has been well received with genuine thank yous from a surprisingly broad spectrum of good people, many of whom have expressed that such a simple image keeps a number of women's issues from being swept under the rug in its quiet way.

SHIPPING

All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT?  Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps.  The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands.  That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here.  See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road.  I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle!  So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.