The Calumny of Apelles

Engraving, 1560 circa, signed and dated on the throne: 'GEOR/GIVS/GHISI/MANT/.F./1560', lettered on the step at base on three tablets. Left: 'CVM PRIVILE/GIO REGIS'; centre: 'ATTRAHIT INSONTE PERIVRA CALVMNIA APELLE/IN IVS IMMISCENS FANDA NEFANDA SIMVL/AVRICVLIS IVDEX INSIGNIS TEPORA ASELLI/IVS PARITER REDDIT COCLITE CV COMITE/TEMPORIS AT DEMV QVAE FERTVR FILIA; SEROS/IN LVCEM PROFERIT QVI LATVERE DOLOS'; right: 'LVCA/PENIS/.IN.'

Example in the third state of six, before publisher Honerougt's address. Magnificent proof, rich in tone, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed inside the marginal line with loss of engraved part, reconstructive restorations to upper corners, minor defects, otherwise in good condition. 

No corresponding drawing or painting by Luca Penni has yet been identified with certainty. A drawing in the Gabinetto dei Disegni del Castello Sforzesco di Milano, inv. no. 4868, in the same direction and with identical dimensions, is executed in Penni's manner, but Albricci does not think it may be a preparatory drawing for this print.

Bellini writes: "After the parenthesis in Mantua, with this work Ghisi returns to reproduce artists active in France. Choosing to depict the Calumny, the artist inserted himself in an iconographic vein frequently treated in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, perhaps because of the subtle allegorical implications that the subject entailed for the figure of the courtier. The subject of the work, as indicated in the panel at lower left, derives from Luca Penni, although at the moment there are no known drawings or paintings by the artist depicting Calumny, with the exception of a drawing conserved in the Gabinetto Disegni of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (inv. 4868, C 519), which is similar to the engraving, except for some details, such as the lack of the two figures that in the engraving can be seen on the bottom left, the lack of the step in the foreground and the absence of the circles and rhombuses inscribed in the boxes. The drawing, pen, watercolour and white lead, in the same direction as the burin, measures 330x320 mm. and bears at the bottom, in old handwriting, an indication of Luca Penni. In our opinion, however, this sheet must be considered a copy taken from an exemplar of the engraving of the IInd state, which also lacks, like the drawing, the step, the tablets with the inscriptions and the rhombuses and circumferences in the floor. In order to investigate which sources Penni drew inspiration for his composition and hypothetically assuming that Ghisi's engraving faithfully reproduces one of Penni's compositions, it seems possible to say that Penni turned to various sources, such as Mantegna's drawing La Calunnia (London BM, inv. 1860.6.16.85) or Girolamo Mocetto's engraving (Bartsch 1811, XIII, p. 113, no. 10; Hind V, p. 165, no. 12) reproducing this drawing, or Botticelli's painting (Florence, Uffizi), or a drawing by Raphael (Louvre inv. 3878) depicting Apelles' La Calunnia, or a copy of it with an architectural background. (London BM, inv. 1872.10.12.3268, see fig. 133), or finally the painting Allegory of Calumny by Apelle, present in Pesaro in the Villa Imperiale (datable to around 1529-1532)" (cf. Paolo Bellini, L'opera incisa di Giorgio Ghisi, 1998, pp. 173-179).

Bibliografia

Bartsch XV.411.64; Le Blanc II.296.59; Paris 1972, no. 351 (entry by Henri Zerner); Albricci 1982, no. 48; Boorsch, Lewis, and Lewis 1985, n. 27 (third state of six); Bellini 1998, n. 40 (third state of six).