The Conversion of St. Paul

The Conversion of St. Paul; large landscape with St. Paul falling from his horse in the center, surrounded by frightened horsemen.

Engraving, 1545, printed on two large sheets of paper, pasted in center. Inscription on fragmentary boulder at left: COSMIMED. FLORENTIAE / DVCIS. II. LIBERALITATI /D. /FRANCISCI FLOR. IO. CAR. SALVIATI. /ALVMNI INVENTVM. /AENEAS. PARMEN. EXCVDEBAT. /ANNO. D. MDXLV. After Francesco Salviati.

Example in the very rare first state of three, before the presence, on the shield in the foreground, of the address Appresso Luca Guarinoni and before the burin retouches.

According to Bartsch the engraving was derived from an untraced painting by Frans Floris. The attribution was incorrect and was rejected in The New Hollstein. In fact, it is derived from Francesco Salviati (1509-1563). Michael Bury thought it likely that the print was commissioned by Salviati himself (see Print Quarterly II 1985, p. 22), while David Franklin, suggests that Salviati intended to use this print as a way to advertise himself, perhaps influenced by the example of Titian. According to Alessandro Nova, the reasons that prompted Salviati to publish the engraving were many: the need to impose himself in the competitive Medici court after a long period of absence was decisive, but one should not underestimate the desire to measure himself against Michelangelo, who in those years was frescoing the same theme on the walls of the Cappella Paolina in the Vatican.

“The Conversion of St. Paul has enjoyed a vast critical fortune since its appearance in 1545. After dedicating it to Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, Salviati sent a copy to Aretino, who thanked him in a letter (August 1545). Aretino's missive, among the longest in the rich epistolary, is a fundamental document for Renaissance art criticism and for assessing in what high regard prints were held in the mid-century. The extraordinary narrative skills of the writer, who was accustomed to collaborating with his friend Tiziano Vecellio, and his talent were particularly stimulated by the concise of this composition. The fame received among contemporaries by Vico's great engraving, almost a meter long and printed on two sheets, like Andrea Mantegna's Battle of the Sea Gods (Hind, V, 15, 5 and 6), is confirmed by encomiastic citations in the works of Doni (1549) and Vasari (1568). According to the latter, “that great map of the Conversion of St. Paul, full of horsemen and soldiers, which was kept beautiful and gave great name to Aeneas” had been “drawn much earlier in Rome” by Salviati. The care with which this work was prepared is documented by the numerous drawings related to it. [...] The composition aroused the enthusiasm of Aretino, who was perhaps able to appreciate Raphaelesque quotations: the effects of light, the animation of the scene, the “old-fashioned” landscape, and the erudite citations were made on purpose to solicit the reaction of a crafty observer like himself. The theme was favored by engravers for its narrative and dramaturgical potential. One would be tempted to call Salviati's Conversion a typically Mannerist work because of its paroxysmal dynamism, but some elements of the composition were part of an established repertoire: the Florentine Francesco Rosselli, who died in 1513, had already engraved a Conversion (Hamburg, Kunsthalle; Landau and Parshall, 1994, p. 83, fig. 73) in which one of the armed men is holding his head in his hands and the soldiers in the foreground are fleeing with their legs out in the direction of the viewer, in poses similar to those imagined here. The reasons that prompted Salviati to publish the engraving were many: the need to impose himself in the competitive Medici court after a long period of absence was decisive, but one should not underestimate the desire to measure himself against Michelangelo, who in those years was frescoing the same theme on the walls of the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican” (cfr. Nova, Le immagini del sacro: Sola Gloria Dei - La storia e l’allegoria - Il mondo del ornamento pp. 136-137).

Enea Vico was a numismatist, draughtsman, writer and engraver, active in Rome, then Florence, Venice and finally Ferrara. Through his engraved work and writings, he effectively contributed to the spread of antiquarian culture in the second half of the 16th century. He carved about 500 engravings, mainly reproduction subjects. This work after Salviati had the merit of increasing his fame. Referring to his own antiquarian culture, Vico included in the background a city surrounded by classical walls encircling turreted Oriental buildings.

There is much confusion in the literature about the states of this plate. Le Blanc is the one who lists the states correctly: the first is the one without editorial addresses and before the burin retouches; the second is printed by Luca Guarinoni (active 1560-80 in Venice); the third state of the print has the address of Giacomo Paolini, a 17th-century Venetian printer, added in the cartouche with the dedication. A copy of the last state is in the Bertarelli collection in Milan:

https://graficheincomune.comune.milano.it/graficheincomune/immagine/M.P.P.+179

Good proof, printed on two large sheets of contemporary laid paper with watermark “crossbow in circle with fleur-de-lis” (in the left sheet, Woodward n. 216, finds it on work dated 1542 to 1554), irregularly trimmed copperplate, restoration work at corners and along central juncture, numerous abrasions and traces of glue on verso, otherwise in good condition.

Very rare work and often in poor condition even in public collections, as shown by this example in the collection of the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica of Rome:

https://www.calcografica.it/stampe/inventario.php?id=S-FN1069

Curiously, the late specimens edited by Guarinoni and Paolini are much better, because they are totally retouched by burin, as we can see from this splendid copy in the British Museum:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1871-0812-86

Bibliografia

Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur (XV.286.13); The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450-1700 (R5.II); Alessandro Nova, Le immagini del sacro: Sola Gloria Dei - La storia e l’allegoria - Il mondo del ornamento, in  Monbeig-Goguel, Catherine, “Francesco Salviati (1510 - 1563), o la Bella Maniera” Roma, Villa Medici 29 gennaio - 29 marzo, 1998, pp. 136-137, n. 29; David Franklin, “Leonardo, Michelangelo e il Rinascimento a Firenze”, 2005, pagg. 225-26; Nagler, 1860, II, p. 876; Passavant, 1864, VI, p. 122, n. 13; The Illustrated Bartsch, 30, p. 23, n. 13; Landau e Parshall, 1994, pp. 293-294, fig. 311; Michael Bury, The Taste for Print in Italy to c. 1600, in “Print Quarterly”, II 1985, p. 18-22, n. 10; Le Blanc (1889), IV, p. 117, n. 13, I/III.