Virgil Solis

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Woodcut from Ovid's Metamorphoses (XIV, 698-764), Frankfort 1581
Woodcut from Ovid's Metamorphoses (XIV, 698-764), Frankfort 1581

Virgil Solis or Virgilius Solis (Nuremberg 15141 August 1562), a member of a prolific family of artists, was a German draughtsman and printmaker in engraving, etching and woodcut who worked in Nuremberg. His prints were sold separately or formed the illustrations of books; 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 were especially influential, though partly borrowing from earlier illustrations by the French artist Bernard Salomon. They were reprinted and copied in many different editions, in Latin and translations into various languages; the Ovid from which the illustration at left has been taken was printed at Frankfort in 1581. Jost Amman was an assistant of his before starting his own workshop.

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