The Virgin and Child, St. Sebastian, and a Bishop Saint
| Reference: | S41831 |
| Author | Niccolò ROSSIGLIANI detto "Il Vicentino" |
| Year: | 1540 ca. |
| Measures: | 304 x 401 mm |
€4,800.00
| Reference: | S41831 |
| Author | Niccolò ROSSIGLIANI detto "Il Vicentino" |
| Year: | 1540 ca. |
| Measures: | 304 x 401 mm |
€4,800.00
Description
The Virgin and Child, St. Sebastian, and a Bishop Saint / Virgin and Child with Saint Sebastian Adored by a Bishop / The Apparition to St. Petronius of the Virgin and Child with St, Sebastian / The Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian and Geminianus.
Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in brown, lettered and dated at lower right 'AA mantoua 1605'. After a drawing attributed to Parmigianino.
Example in the second state of three, with the Andrea Andreani’ name and date added al lower right, before the initials FBV just below the bishop’s right hand.
Bartsch listed two states: the first one unlettered, and a second one with Andreani’s name and the initials FBV. Our example bears the Andreani’s name without the initials FBV. We found the same example in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts collection, Birmingham, described with any reference to the plate’ state: “Andreani purchased Ugo’s original woodcut blocks from the 1520s and republished them”. Another example of this edition, also printed in brown, is preserved in the British Museum.
Bartsch recognized that the three letters stand for “Francesco Barozzio Urbinas”. Given the dates of the two artists, if this print is by Ugo da Carpi, it cannot be after Barocci; and conversely, if it is after Barocci, it cannot be by Ugo.
The chiaroscuro is not based on a work by Federico Barocci but rather on a drawing by Parmigianino now in the Louvre and that Gnann dates to the artist’s early Bolognese years between 1527 and 1528 (ill. in Gnann, p. 212, fig. 56). It should be noted, however, that the drawing is in the same direction.
Furthermore, the attribution of the Louvre drawing to Parmigianino is not completely undisputed. Sylvie Béguin, for example, suggested Niccolò dell’Abate as a possible author (cfr. Matile’s footnote p. 152, n. 349).
The work is known with different titles: The Virgin and Child, St. Sebastian, and a Bishop Saint (or Virgin and Child with Saint Sebastian Adored by a Bishop); The Apparition to St Petronius of the Virgin and Child with St Sebastian, The Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian and Geminianus.
Print shows three separate vignettes: The Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, Saint Sebastian, and a bishop wearing a mitre.
The bishop in the foreground cannot be identified with certainty either; he is thought to be either St. Geminianus, the patron saint of Modena, or St. Petronius, the patron saint of Bologna. If the latter were correct, the model in the bishop’s hands might be seen as referring to Petronius’s architectural endeavors since he is known to have initiated the building of S. Stefano in Bologna as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Lastly, the woodcut, generally attributed to Ugo da Carpi, is sometimes referred to Niccolò Vicentino, without details to support the thesis. Recently N. Takahatake attributed the work to the Vicentino on stylistic grounds (see Atlante delle xilografie italiane del Rinascimento, ALU.1002.1).
A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the borderline, perfectly executed restoration in the upper left corner, otherwise in excellent condition. Rare.
Literature
Bartsch A., Le peintre graveur, Vienna, 1803-1821, v. XII, p. 66, n. 26; The Illustrated Bartsch; XII.066.26; Michael Matile, Italienische Holzschnitte der Renaissance und des Barock. Bestandskatalog der Graphischen Sammlung der ETH Zürich, Basel 2003, p. 152/154, cat. no. 65 Achim Gnann, In Farbe! Clair-obscur-Holzschnitte der Renaissance. Meisterwerke aus der Sammlung Georg Baselitz und der Albertina in Wien, exhibition catalogue, 2013–14, pp. 212–214, n. 98–99; Takahatake N., Atlante delle xilografie italiane del Rinascimento, ALU.1002.1.
Niccolò ROSSIGLIANI detto "Il Vicentino" (Attivo a Vicenza 1540-50)
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Italian woodcutter and printer. He signed five chiaroscuro woodcuts, each after a different artist and all undated. Probably the earliest is a two-block woodcut of Hercules and the Lion after Giulio Romano. Cloelia after Maturino or Giulio Romano, in three blocks, is still rather crudely cut and registered, and probably the next chronologically. A very cursive, elegant line manifests itself in subsequent works, such as Ajax and Agamemnon after Polidoro da Caravaggio, the Sacra Conversazione with St Catherine after a design attributed to Camillo Boccaccino and Christ Healing the Lepers after Parmigianino. An unsigned Adoration of the Magi and The Cardinal and the Doctor can also reasonably be ascribed to him. His hand is doubtless one of several discernible in a large group of anonymous chiaroscuros based on designs by Parmigianino that may represent the products of a workshop supervised by Vicentino. Vasari related how Parmigianino had certain chiaroscuros cut by Antonio da Trento, and that many other designs were printed after the painter’s death by ‘Joannicolo Vicentino’. A group of ten small anonymous two-block chiaroscuros after silverpoint drawings by Parmigianino as well as the Twelve Apostles in which two cutting hands are visible, are presumably part of this output, along with about a dozen more anonymous chiaroscuros. That Vicentino had a workshop is further suggested by the fact that a large number of the Parmigianino drawings related to the chiaroscuros remained together and that Andrea Andreani seems to have acquired many of the blocks and reprinted them later in the 16th century.
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Niccolò ROSSIGLIANI detto "Il Vicentino" (Attivo a Vicenza 1540-50)
|
Italian woodcutter and printer. He signed five chiaroscuro woodcuts, each after a different artist and all undated. Probably the earliest is a two-block woodcut of Hercules and the Lion after Giulio Romano. Cloelia after Maturino or Giulio Romano, in three blocks, is still rather crudely cut and registered, and probably the next chronologically. A very cursive, elegant line manifests itself in subsequent works, such as Ajax and Agamemnon after Polidoro da Caravaggio, the Sacra Conversazione with St Catherine after a design attributed to Camillo Boccaccino and Christ Healing the Lepers after Parmigianino. An unsigned Adoration of the Magi and The Cardinal and the Doctor can also reasonably be ascribed to him. His hand is doubtless one of several discernible in a large group of anonymous chiaroscuros based on designs by Parmigianino that may represent the products of a workshop supervised by Vicentino. Vasari related how Parmigianino had certain chiaroscuros cut by Antonio da Trento, and that many other designs were printed after the painter’s death by ‘Joannicolo Vicentino’. A group of ten small anonymous two-block chiaroscuros after silverpoint drawings by Parmigianino as well as the Twelve Apostles in which two cutting hands are visible, are presumably part of this output, along with about a dozen more anonymous chiaroscuros. That Vicentino had a workshop is further suggested by the fact that a large number of the Parmigianino drawings related to the chiaroscuros remained together and that Andrea Andreani seems to have acquired many of the blocks and reprinted them later in the 16th century.
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