Bouttats, Pieter Balthasar | A rare and striking engraving of rope performers

Bouttats, Pieter Balthasar

Akrobaten und Seiltänzer [In Portentis Glorianti - Non Plus Ultra]. Antwerp: Bouttats, circa 1761

Copper engraving (493 x 651 mm). Numerous rope performers, with surrounding foliage; mounted on album leaves, old fold with minor abrading, browning, and spotting.  

Perhaps the earliest, and almost certainly the largest, variant of this striking engraving. In the foreground, the scene depicts a ringmaster of sorts gesturing toward his numerous performers, nearly all of whom are balancing on ropes suspended between the trees, as they demonstrate various acrobatic, juggling, and equilibristic feats. The illustration is apparently quite scarce, with the only another known copy in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 

Rare.