The Last Supper

Woodcut, dated and signed with monogram at lower left “1528/GRF”.

A good proof, printed on contemporary laid paper with “shield with crescent” watermark, trimmed at marginal line, slight traces of old ink, otherwise in very good condition.

Work not described by repertories, signed with GRF monogram that some scholars (Nagler, Gori Gandellini) have dissolved into Guido Ruggieri Fecit.

News about Guido Ruggieri or Ruggeri is rather confused. Of him it is known that he was active in Fontainebleau between 1525 and 1531 under Francesco Primaticcio. The problem arises because of the confusion among the various artists working in the castle at that time and with the translation into print of the works of Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino. Biasini, in her essay Le incisioni del Maestro FG italiano, links Guido Ruggeri to the FG monogram, which others instead attribute to Girolamo Fagiuoli or the Frenchman Francois Gentil. Malvasia describes him as a pupil, both as a painter and as a goldsmith and engraver, of Francesco Francia.  Bartsch describes an engraving of him by Primaticcio (B. vol. 15, p. 415, 1); Nagler only contributes to the confusion by lumping the description together with other artists working at Fontainebleau including Giorgio Ghisi.

However, the technique adopted for the translation of this subject, woodcut instead of engraving, the slightly early date for Ruggieri and the lack of possibility of comparison with any of his other woodcut works lead us not to consider him as the author of this woodcut, probably inspired by the work of Albrecht Durer (1523) and based on Leonardo da Vinci.

Bibliografia

Cfr. G.K. Nagler, Die Monogrammisten, III, pp. 96-98, nn. 326-330.