De Oro's golden nuggets

I've mentioned that 2004 Spanish exhibition and accompanying beautiful catalogue before, but it's high time I showed you some more gems featured in both. As I was about to mount my few Alfredo de Oro Sanz issues, I thought I'd scan them first so I can show them here.

There is, to be honest, not much information about the man in the catalogue. What with him being just a few years older than me, his career is very much one of the nineties and onwards. The catalogue only includes some four items engraved by him, of which I've been able to track down three. The fourth, a private engraving of the Puerta de Bisagra in Toldeo, is absolutely stunning but I've no idea how to get hold of it, or indeed if I ever can.


I had more luck with the 1990's banknote which includes a portrait by De Oro of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador.


The two stamps included in the book were of course also easy to find.  First up we have a value from the 1997 'Jewish Quarters' set. De Oro engraved the façade of a 15th century building in St Anthony's Quarter in Cáceres.


The one I like best, though, is a 1999 stamp to mark the International Money Museums Congress which was held in Madrid that year (click on it to enlarge it to enjoy the detail even better). The stamp depicts Marinus Reymerswaele's "The Money Changer and his Wife". Apparently, the 16th century Dutch painter only painted some five different subjects over and over again, of which this is one. And, to link in with a previous post, most of his paintings are adaptations of Albrecht Dürer's art. So once again we're back on well-trodden territory. I think this calls for Dürer to become our stamp engravers patron saint!

:-)
Adrian