HYRCANUS BESIEGING THE FORT OF DAGON

Original 1777 10 1/4 inch x 8 inch Etching and engraving titled HYRCANUS BESIEGING THE FORT OF DAGON, SEES THE INHABITANTS WHIPPING HIS MOTHER & HIS BROTHERS UPON THE WALL. HE LEAVES THE SIEGE NOT BEING ABLE TO SUPPORT THE SIGHT OF SO BARBAROUS AN ACTION.

Etched by Charles White (1751 – 1785). Drawing Master & Engraver at the Golden Head in Wells St, near Oxford St, London.

After Jan Luyken (1649 – 1712). Luyken was born in Amsterdam and learned engraving from his father Kaspar Luyken.

He illustrated the 1685 edition of the Martyrs Mirror with 104 copper etchings and published Het Menselyk Bedryf (“The Book of Trades”) in 1694, which contains numerous engravings, by Luyken and his son Caspar, of 17th century trades.

From “The Works of Flavius Josephus. I. The Life of Josephus as written by Himself; II. The Antiquities of the Jewish People, with a defence of those Antiquities, in Answer to Apion; III. The History of the Martyrdom of the Maccabees, and the Wars of the Jews with the Neighbouring Nations till the final Destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Power; IV. Account of Philo’s Ambassy from the Jews of Alexandria, to the Emperor Caius Caligula (1777). Published by Fielding and Walker, London, 1777.

Josephus, Flavius (37 – c. 100), was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem (then part of Roman Judea) to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.

Image size 5 5/8 inch x 3 5/8 inch

The etching is in very good condition with slight age related toning. Reverse side blank.