Wynistorff, Johannes, and Thomas Bäck (engraver) | A remarkable homage to Buchinger

Wynistorff, Johannes, and Thomas Bäck (engraver)

Johannes Wynistorff … [Np, but Augsburg: ca. 1745]

Etching (310 x 214 mm). Engraved full-length portrait of Wynistorff, surrounded by 16 vignettes of him performing accomplishments, all by Thomas Bäck, inscribed by Wynistorff in ink in lower margin; old folds, minor offsetting, two or three stray spots. Hinged to card, matted; some soiling to mat.

After Buchinger

According to Jay, this etching, created by Thomas Bäeck, "follows the same pattern used in the 1710 portrait of Buchinger with thirteen vignettes by Elias Baeck—to whom Thomas may have been related—in order to display the skills of Johannes Wynistorff, born without hands. Thomas Bäeck includes sixteen vignettes that show Wynistorff performing feats with his feet, such as threading a needle, shooting a gun, shuffling and playing cards, cutting a quill and writing, paying a compliment with the tip of his hat, cutting with scissors, and playing a triangle. It is a remarkable homage to Buchinger that a later performer such as Wynistorff would ape not only his abilities but also the presentation of those abilities in an advertisement or souvenir print" (exhibition note).

REFERENCE:

LP&FW, p. 63

PROVENANCE:

Exhibited: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay," 8 January - 11 April 2016