The Fall of Troy and the Escape of Aeneas
| Reference: | S36035 |
| Author | Giorgio GHISI detto "Il Mantovano" |
| Year: | 1545 ca. |
| Measures: | 495 x 385 mm |
| Reference: | S36035 |
| Author | Giorgio GHISI detto "Il Mantovano" |
| Year: | 1545 ca. |
| Measures: | 495 x 385 mm |
Description
Engraving, 1545 circa, signed lower right: 'GIORGIVS MANTVANVS/. F' and inscribed lower centre: 'I. BA. MANTVANVS. IN.' Example of the second state of three, with the Lafreri’s address.
Magnificient proof, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed close to platemark, very good condition.
Mounted on powerful horses, the invading Greek force storms into the burning city on the left. On the right, Aeneas scales the walls to escape with his elderly father and young son while his mother, Venus, protects him from a hovering cloud. As described in Virgil’s poem the Aeneid, after the Trojan War Aeneas follows a winding, perilous course, similar to that of Odysseus in Homer’s the Odyssey, before eventually making his way to a new home, Rome.
Derived from Giovanni Battista Scultori's invention perhaps inspired by a drawing by Giulio Romano preserved earlier in the Louvre (see C. D'Arco, Storia della vita e delle opere de Giulio Pippi Romano, Mantova 1838, p. XL, no. 83).
The same composition is found in a drawing attributed to Biagio Pupini, Windsor Library, inv. no. 5435, see Popham and Wilde, The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London 1949, no. 785.
There are two other Ghisi engravings from this period, based on G. B. Scultori's designs, all indebted to Giulio Romano's art: Scultori's own Naval Battle between Greeks and Trojans (Bartsch XV.383.20) and Giorgio Ghisi's Sinon Deceiving the Trojans (Bartsch XV.397.28). However, Boorsch, Lewis and Lewis noted that the three prints cannot be considered as a set beacuse of differences in size and date.
Dominique Cordellier recently observed that the inventor may as well be Giovanni Battista Bertani (Scultori).
Bibliografia
Bartsch XV.397.29; Le Blanc II.296.62; Boorsch, Lewis, and Lewis, The engravings of Giorgio Ghisi, no. 8; Davis, Mannerist Prints…, n. 27; Bellini, L’opera incisa di Giorgio Ghisi, n. 9
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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