Virgil Solis or Virgilius Solis (1514 – 1 August 1562), a member of a prolific family of artists, was a German

draughtsman A draughtsman (British spelling) or draftsman (American spelling) may refer to: * An architectural drafter, who produced architectural drawings until the late 20th century * An artist who produces drawings that rival or surpass their other types ...

and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

who worked in his native city of

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Biography

His prints were sold separately (mainly the etchings and engravings) or formed the illustrations of books (normally the woodcuts); many prints signed by him are probably by assistants. After his death his widow married his assistant and continued the workshop into the early seventeenth century. His woodcuts illustrating

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

were especially influential, though partly borrowing from earlier illustrations by the French artist

Bernard Salomon Bernard Salomon, (1506–1561) was a French painter, draftsman and engraver. Little is known of the life of Bernard Salomon (also known as the Little Bernard B. Gallus or Gallo). His family may have been belt-makers in Lyon. He was commissioned ...

. They were reprinted and copied in many different editions, in Latin and translations into various languages; the Ovid from which the illustration at right has been taken was printed at Frankfurt in 1581. He published an

armorial A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms. The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

in 1555.

Jost Amman Jost Amman (June 13, 1539 – March 17, 1591) was a Swiss-German artist, celebrated chiefly for his woodcuts, done mainly for book illustrations. Early life Amman was born in Zürich, the son of a professor of Classics and Logic. He wa ...

was an assistant of Solis' before starting his own workshop. Solis eventually died in

. Eduard von Ubisch wrote a comprehensive description of Solis' life and work in relation to the Bible images in 1889.

External links

Virgil Solis, 183 illustrations to Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''
Frankfurt-am-Main, 1581 * 1563 Illustrated Edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Internet Archive, page by page photographs of complete book from The Norris Museum, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK. Catalogue Numbers 90 and 200.
A very adequate amount of information about editions of Ovid and their illustrations, from the University of Virginia
* Biblische Figuren des Alten Testaments / Biblische Figuren des Neuwen Testaments. Internet Archive, page by page photographs of complete book from The Norris Museum, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, UK. Catalogue Numbers 89 and 201.
Virgil Solis' Wappenbüchlein (1555)Holdings in the Deutsche NationalbibliothekVirgil Solis und seine biblischen Illustrationen für den Holzschnitt (1889) publisher Ramm & Seemann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solis, Virgil 1514 births 1562 deaths Artists from Nuremberg German draughtsmen Heraldic artists German printmakers