[STONE EATER]. HOLLAR, Wenceslas (16070 -77). The True Portraiture of a Roman Youth …. Circa 1641. Etched full-length portrait with engraved caption below the likeness describes the youth, Francesco Battalia, who was “borne holding 3 little stones in one hand, and in the other 2…” and who was fed these stones by his parents, “and read [red] wine which in 6 days space comes from him converted into sand….” With a shorthand or ciphered caption written in ink below and beside the printing, and dated by hand Sept. 23 1642. Framed; sight 12 x 8” with ragged edges and foxing, but not examined out of frame. SCARCE.
An early – if not the first – version of this portrait of the stone eater, which reproduced well in to the nineteenth century in the works of Caufield and Wilson.