Sinon e i Troiani
| Reference: | S36069 |
| Author | Giorgio GHISI detto "Il Mantovano" |
| Year: | 1540 |
| Measures: | 474 x 360 mm |
| Reference: | S36069 |
| Author | Giorgio GHISI detto "Il Mantovano" |
| Year: | 1540 |
| Measures: | 474 x 360 mm |
Description
Engraving, circa 1540, signed at lower left 'J.B. Mantuanus inv' and at bottom white margin 'Georgius Mant f'.
After Giovanni Battista Scultori.
Second state of five, added at image bottom the publisher’s address “Romae Antonij Lafreri formis”
A very good example, printed on contemporary laid paper with “M with star in shield” watermark, trimmed at margins, central fold on the back, otherwise in very good condition.
Ghisi made two engravings reproducing a composition of the Trojan War by Giovanni Battista Scultori , this one and The Fall of Troy and the Escape of Aeneas (V,8.94).
This print shows the Greek Sinon standing knee deep in a marsh, center left, as the Trojans pull the wooden horse, in whose hollow belly were hidden the strongest of the Greek warriors, into their city. Sinon is not mentioned by Homer but does appear in later epics, notably in Aeneid, which would have been especially well known in Mantua, Virgil’s birthplace.
As Virgil relates the episode, in Aeneid II 57 ff., Sinon told the Trojans that the Greek had decided to leave and had chosen him to be sacrificed in order to gain a safe return, but that he had escaped and had hidden at night among reeds in a marsh. He told the Trojans the horse was made as an offering to Athena, whose temple some of the Greek has defiled. The horse was purposely made too large to fit throught the gates of Troy, Sinon ontinued, because the Greeks believed that if Trojans did bring it in, they would then be victorious over the Greeks. Despite the warnings of Laocoön and Cassandra, the horse was taken inside the city gates. Once inside the walls and under the cover of darkness, the Greek warriors emerged from hiding inside the horse. They opened the gates for the rest of the Greek armies to swarm into the city. The city was destroyed.
Bibliografia
Lewis & Lewis 7 II/V; Bartsch 28; Massari 180.
Giorgio GHISI detto "Il Mantovano" (Mantova 1520 - 1582)
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Giorgio Ghisi or Chizi, or Ghizi, aka Mantovano, was born in Mantua in a family from Parma who lived in Mantua between 1515 and 1525. He died in the same city in 1582.
Giorgio was paiter, carver, “operatore all’azzimina” (he worked with jewels) and engraver. His first print bears the date 1543, although it is possible that he had already started his career as engraver even before, in the school of Giovanni Battista Scultori (1503 – 1575) and working with Giulio Romano who came to Mantua in 1524 to decorate Palazzo del Tè. Giorgio left Mantua after Giulio’s death, in 1546, and he went to Rome to meet his fellow citizen Pietro Faccetti, during the pontificate of Paul III (1534 – 1549).
At the age of thirty, between 1549 and 1550, Ghisi left Italy and went to Antwerp, the most important cultural city in Europe, for he had been invited by the publisher Hieronymus Cock.
From Antwerp he moved to Paris and there he published prints form Luca Penni and Giulio Romano bearing the King’s Privilege. He remained in Paris until 1560 approximately.
In 1578 he must have engraved his last plates; we know that from that point and till his death, he worked for Vincenzo Gonzaga as jewel designer.
Bartsch and Passavant had catalogued about 70 prints, while Hubert registered just 31; D’Arco lists 44 subjects and the Lewis’ 63.
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Giorgio GHISI detto "Il Mantovano" (Mantova 1520 - 1582)
|
Giorgio Ghisi or Chizi, or Ghizi, aka Mantovano, was born in Mantua in a family from Parma who lived in Mantua between 1515 and 1525. He died in the same city in 1582.
Giorgio was paiter, carver, “operatore all’azzimina” (he worked with jewels) and engraver. His first print bears the date 1543, although it is possible that he had already started his career as engraver even before, in the school of Giovanni Battista Scultori (1503 – 1575) and working with Giulio Romano who came to Mantua in 1524 to decorate Palazzo del Tè. Giorgio left Mantua after Giulio’s death, in 1546, and he went to Rome to meet his fellow citizen Pietro Faccetti, during the pontificate of Paul III (1534 – 1549).
At the age of thirty, between 1549 and 1550, Ghisi left Italy and went to Antwerp, the most important cultural city in Europe, for he had been invited by the publisher Hieronymus Cock.
From Antwerp he moved to Paris and there he published prints form Luca Penni and Giulio Romano bearing the King’s Privilege. He remained in Paris until 1560 approximately.
In 1578 he must have engraved his last plates; we know that from that point and till his death, he worked for Vincenzo Gonzaga as jewel designer.
Bartsch and Passavant had catalogued about 70 prints, while Hubert registered just 31; D’Arco lists 44 subjects and the Lewis’ 63.
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