The Dispute on the Holy Sacrament

The Dispute on the Sacrament, after the fresco by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura, with some variations. This is the third print made by Giorgio Ghisi and published by Heironymous Cock in 1552.

Engraving, 1552, printed from two plates on two joined sheets of paper, join vertically at the center, just beyond the right hand of Jesus.

Lettered with description, artists' names and publication line "HIERONY/MVS/COCK/PICTOR/EXCV./ M.D.LII/ CVM/GRATIA/ET/PRIVIL/ EGIO". On the face of the low wall, lower right: "COLLAVDANT HIC TRINI/ VNIVSQUE DEI MAIESTATE/ COE-LITES. ADMIRANTVR/ AC RELIGIOSE ADORANT/SACRO-SANCTAE ECCLESIAE/ PROCERES. QVIS VEL ISTOR/ EXEMPLO PROVOCATVS AD/ PIETATE NON INFLAMETVR" [Here the Heavenly Hosts praise the majesty of the triune and the one God. They admire and religiously adore the princes of the sacred Church. Who, roused by that example, would not be inflamed to piety?]. Lower, on the same wall: "MAGNO HEROI.D. ANTON PERE/ NOTO EPISC. ATREBAT CAROLV/CAES. A CONSIL PRIMARIO. INSI/GNIVM INGENIOR. MOECOENATI/DICAT". [The artist dedicates this engraving to the great hero and patron D. Antonio Perenoto, Bishop of Arras and prime minister of the Emperor Charles]. To the left of this, on the end of the same wall: "RA/ PHA/EL/ VRB/.IN.". A blank space, then: “GIE/OR/G/ MAN/ TVA Nº./.F.".

“The third engraving by Ghisi published by Hieronymus Cock was based on another of the frescoes painted by Raphael about 1509-10 for the Stanza della Segnatura of the Vatican Palace. Like Ghisi's print of The Last Supper, it is dedicated to Antonio Perenoto, Bishop of Arras, later Cardinal Granvelle. On the vertical axis of the picture is the Trinity, with God the Father above, God the Son at the center, and the Dove of the Holy Spirit below. To right and left of Christ are the Virgin and St. John the Baptist; slightly below them, on a cloudbank, are the Elect-the saints and the Old Testament figures. Directly beneath the Trinity is the Eucharist, on an altar. Flanking the altar are the Four Fathers of the Church - Sts. Gregory and Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose - sixteenth-century churchmen, and others, including Dante behind the pope at the right, identified as Sixtus IV.

The Disputation, like The School of Athens, was clearly made from an image taken from the finished fresco, although there are some obvious variations. For example, unlike the fresco, the print is a rectangular, not an arched, composition. The head of the man peering over the two figures near the railing at lower left is distinctly larger in scale than it is in the fresco. In the print, the angels appear only in the band of clouds, whereas in the fresco they appear in vertical rows throughout the upper sky. Moreover, the halos on the heads of the Virgin and six seated saints, the inscriptions on the books, and the decoration on the altar hangings and the papal clothing have been omitted in the print. On the other hand, the pattern on the floor has been elaborated. It seems as though whoever made the drawing that Ghisi followed worked as quickly as possible, relying for some details on memory, which in the case of the floor pattern proved faulty. The identity of the artist who made the drawing from which Ghisi worked is unknown” (cfr. Lewis, The Engravings of Giorgio Ghisi, pp. 68-70).

Example of the only state known according with Michael and R. E. Lewis: “LeBlanc, Andresen, and Massari mention a second state, LeBlanc without description and Andresen describing it as later and retouched. We have never observed it, though we have seen a number of late and worn impressions. Massari's "first state, unknown to Bartsch" is actually the anonymous copy. Perhaps LeBlanc and Andresen saw the same copy and thought it was a first state”. (cfr. Lewis, The Engravings of Giorgio Ghisi, p. 69).

Hieronymus Cock, born in Antwerp about 1520, was a painter, printmaker, and art dealer as well as a print publisher. In 1548 he founded Aux Quatre Vents, which was to become the most important print publishing firm outside Italy until it was closed at the death of his widow in 1600; Cock himself had died in 1570. Cock is thought to have gone to Rome about 1546-48, just before starting his business. If so, he must have visited the impressive publishing houses of Antonio Lafreri and Salamanca, which had no counterpart in the Low Countries at that time. He may have met and hired Giorgio Ghisi in Rome.  Cock published The School of Athens in 1550; The Last Supper in 1551; The Dispute on the Holy Sacrament in 1552; The Nativity, dated 1553, in 1554; and The Judgment of Paris in 1555. The appearance of these large and brilliantly executed engravings, two of them after monuments of the Italian Renaissance and all but one after Italian Renaissance artists, certainly helped to establish Aux Quatre Vents as an influential and innovative force in Antwerp print publishing.

A fine impression, printed on two separate sheets of contemporary laid paper with a watermark difficult to read (on the right sheet, seems to be a “horn in a shield”, Lewis n. 29, 16th-century Flemish paper, compatible with publisher Cock), trimmed to the platemark, paper creases and abrasions visible on verso, mini restorations at corners, otherwise in good condition.

Bibliografia

Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur, XV.394.23; Lewis, The Engravings of Giorgio Ghisi, pp. 68-70, n. 13; Heller-Andresen 8, LeBlanc 25, S. Massari, Incisori Mantovani del ‘500, n.  200