St Jerome clasping a crucifix

Engraving, 1602, dated and signed in right lower margin '1602 Olivier Gatti f”.

Good example, printed on contemporary laid paper, thin margins, just faded in the lower right corner with the date and the signature, occasional foxing, otherwise in good condition.

The scene shows St. Jerome clasping a crucifix, half-length with a skull.

Bartsch records a tradition that the design was given to Gatti by Agostino Carracci.

Traditionally the invention is attributed to Agostino Carracci. It would be the only known engraving by Gatti taken from a composition by Agostino.

Mentioned for the first time in Masini's Bologna perlustrata (1666), which, however, reports no significant information, Gatti was considered more fully by Malvasia (1678), who described him as a pupil in Bologna first of Agostino Carracci and, after the latter's death in 1602, aggregated to the workshop of Giovanluigi Valesio, alongside the more modest Andrea Salmincio and in the orbit of the Accademia of Mirandola.

Gatti's oeuvre is relatively extensive; from the 140 prints described by Bartsch, Rapetti has come to count up to 167, listed in chronological order, of which 151 are dated and signed, five undated but signed, and 11 only attributed. Some of them are said to be extremely rare by Ticozzi and Bartsch.

Bibliografia

Bartsch XIX.10.28.