Saturn

Saturn seated on clouds holding his scythe.
Etching, after Giovanni Andrea Sirani. Lettered with initials in reverse 'Sir I' and 'Ger S F'.

Saturn was the Latin equivalent of the Greek titan Cronus. He was depicted as a bearded old man, dressed in a cloak and holding a scythe. It was believed that, having been banished from Olympus, he reigned for a period in Latium, in the so-called Golden Age, a peaceful and progressive era. One day he would suddenly disappear, causing the progressive decadence of mankind.

Our knowledge of Girolamo Scarsello’s life is very fragmentary. He was a pupil of Francesco Gessi and worked as a painter and etcher in Bologna, Milan and Turin. Scarsello’s printed work comprises just six etchings, which according to Bartsch are “exé­cu­tées d’une pointe légère et assez spirituelle” (Le Peintre-Graveur, XIX, p. 249). In the past, some of Scarsello’s prints were taken for works by Giovanni Andrea Sirani, to whom he was stylistically very close and who also provided the model for the present etching.

Scarsello was a by no means untalented little master who developed his skills by imitating and adapting the art of Sirani and Guido Reni. 

A fine impression, with small margins around the inky platemark, very good condition.