Thursday, June 30, 2016

Italian Etchings and Engravings, 16th century

Agostino Veneziano
Candelabrum base with acanthus leaves
ca. 1530-35
engraving
British Museum

According to that useful handbook European Art of the Sixteenth Century by Stefano Zuffi (published in English translation by the Getty Museum in 2005) engraving rose to prominence during this period "... because of its versatility, technical innovations, and the work of great masters."  The cheapness of production and ease of distribution also made their own pragmatic capitalist arguments in favor of these black-and-white mass-produced line-pictures.

Giacomo Lauro
Statue of a warrior in a niche
1585
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Marco Dente
Massacre of the Innocents
ca. 1520-27
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Marco Dente
Fortitude
ca. 1519-20
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

attributed to Marco Dente
God the Father blessing Noah and his family after the Flood
ca. 1515-26
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Marco Dente
The antique bronze displayed in Rome and known as the Spinario 
ca. 1515-27
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Diana Scultori
The antique bronze displayed in Rome and known as the Spinario
1581
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Agostino dei Musi
Child riding a sea monster in a niche
ca. 1520-50
engraving
Victoria & Albert Museum

Giovanni Antonio da Brescia
Neptune quelling the winds
ca. 1516
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giulio Bonasone
Nymphs and Sea Gods at table
1550s
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giulio Bonasone
Hercules fighting a Dragon
ca. 1570
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Domenico del Barbiere after Rosso Fiorentino
Personification of Glory
1540s
engraving
British Museum

Antonio Fantuzzi
Antique statue of draped woman
ca. 1544
etching
British Museum

Monogrammist FP
Virtue triumphant over Vice
16th century
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Giorgio Ghisi, Renaissance Engraver

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
The Three Fates - Clotho, Lachesis,  Atropos
1558-59
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art

More work by master engraver Giorgio Ghisi (1520-1582) who broadened the reputations of Italian painters in 16th-century Europe with these meticulous monochrome renderings.  

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
Allegory of Sickness
ca. 1540
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giorgio Ghisi after Bronzino
The Nativity
1553-54
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giorgio Ghisi after Polidoro da Caravaggio
Caius Marius in prison
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giogrio Ghisi after Teodoro Ghisi
Angelica and Medoro
ca. 1570
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Perino del Vaga
Neptune
ca. 1550-70
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
Hercules
1567
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Giovanni Battista Bertani
Hercules and the Hydra
ca. 1550-58
engraving
British Museum

Giogio Ghisi
Farnese Hercules
1570s
engraving
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giorgio Ghisi
Allegory of Life
1561
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giogio Ghisi
Danae, Perseus and Ancrisius embarking
1543
engraving
British Museum

Giogio Ghisi
Virgin of Sorrows (surrounded by nine thematic cuts)
ca. 1575
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giorgio Ghisi
Mourning Angel (from Virgin of Sorrows panel)
ca. 1575
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giorgio Ghisi
Mourning Angel (from Virgin of Sorrows panel)
ca. 1575
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Giorgio Ghisi's Engraved Mythologies, 16th century

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Gods and Goddesses in Roundels (Apollo, Neptune, Pluto, Athena)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi (1520-1582) was primarily a 'reproductive' artist, engaged in high-quality copying of frescoes and easel paintings by other Italian hands than his own. He made a good share of the engravings that now represent the best surviving records of Francesco Primaticcio's lost masterpieces at Fontainebleau.

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Gods and Goddesses in Roundels (Juno, two other Goddesses, two Putti)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Gods and Goddesses in Roundels (Hercules, Bacchus, Pan, another God)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Gods and Goddesses in Roundels (Venus, two other Goddesses, two Putti)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Muses and Mythological Figures (Three Muses and Putto)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Muses and Mythological Figures (Three Muses and Putto)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Muses and Mythological Figures (Three Muses and Putto) 
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Primaticcio
Muses and Mythological Figures (Pan, Apollo and Putto)
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Perino del Vaga
Venus and Vulcan
1550s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Teodoro Ghisi
Venus and Adonis
1570s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi
Venus, Vulcan and Cupid
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Luca Penni
Venus and Cupid, with Mars pursuing Adonis
1556
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
Cupid and Psyche
1574
engraving
British Museum

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
Fortune
1560s
engraving
British Museum

Monday, June 27, 2016

Etchings and Engravings after Primaticcio, 16th century

Antonio Fantuzzi after Primaticcio
Seated Sibyl
ca. 1544-45
etching
British Museum

Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570) was one of the most prominent Italian artists recruited into France during the 16th century to decorate the reconstructed palace at Fontainebleau, a project to which he devoted most of his life. The Fontainebleau decorations were extensively copied in drawings and prints by other artists. This was especially fortunate because few of Primaticcio's paintings have survived. His famous ceiling frescoes and other vast schemes were deliberately obliterated by additional subsequent waves of construction, destruction, and remodeling.

Antonio Fantuzzi after Primaticcio
Soldier Ploughing with Oxen (other soldiers rising from the ground)
etching
ca. 1543-44
British Museum

Hendrik Goltzius after Primaticcio
Hercules defending the ship Argos
1577
engraving
British Museum

Monogrammist FG after Primaticcio
The Wounded Hector
1540s
etching
British Museum

Monogrammist FG after Primaticcio
Alexander with Amazons
1540s
engraving
British Museum

Monogrammist FG after Primaticcio
Penelope Weaving
1540s
engraving
British Museum

Léon Davent after Primaticcio
The Muse Euterpe
ca. 1540-45
etching
British Museum

Léon Davent after Primaticcio
The Muse Erato
ca. 1540-45
etching
British Museum

Léon Davent after Primaticcio
The Goddess Juno
ca. 1540-45
etching
British Museum

Léon Davent after Primaticcio
Two Women with Putto
ca. 1545-47
etching
British Museum

Léon Davent after Primaticcio
Mars
ca. 1540-45
etching
British Museum

Léon Davent after Primaticcio
Bellona
ca. 1540-45
etching
British Museum

To close, two rare drawings now in the British Museum from the hand of Primaticcio himself. Because he was remarkably celebrated in his lifetime, and because so little of his original work still exists, even the artist's name now carries its own legendary significance, the actual once-living person transformed into an ageless personification of tragic vulnerability.

Francesco Primaticcio
Psyche before the Gods
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Francesco Primaticcio
Graces bearing aloft Minerva
1540s
drawing
British Museum