St. Christopher's

UNDESCRIBED WORK

Woodcut, c. 1520, monogrammed in the top panel with the letters D and N and the cross symbol.

After a subject by Albrecht Dürer.

Magnificent proof, richly toned, printed on contemporary laid paper, lacking the watermark, complete with marginal line, minimal abrasions and traces of glue visible on verso, otherwise in perfect condition.

This is an unknown counterpart copy of Dürer's woodcut from 1511 (Bartsch no. 103). Dürer was very interested in the theme of St. Christopher, which recurs other times in his graphic work (a youthful woodcut and some very similar engravings dated 1521).

De Nanto's work is not listed in Thierry Depaulis's recent essay, From Savoy to Rome: Francesco de Nanto, a Neglected Printmaker of the Early Sixteenth Century ["Print Quarterly" (2020)], which catalogs as many as 44 woodcuts, nor in the 21 anonymous woodcuts that Mark McDonald [The Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus (1488-1539). A Renaissance Collector in Seville] attributes to the artist. It is not, likewise, listed among the copies by Albrecht Dürer.

We have not traced any other specimen of this St. Christopher, which appears to be unknown to the literature.

“In the history of woodcut in Italy a not secondary place is occupied by Francesco De Nanto, whose work, as interesting as it is little known, would deserve for its artistic merits a certainly greater popularization” (cf. C. Stella, Francesco De Nanto in “Grafica d'Arte”, October-December 1992, pp. 6-9). 

Biographical information on Francesco Denanto (or De Nanto) is scanty and very sketchy. He was the son of an Iacopo and of Savoyard origin, as we learn from the subscriptions of his work: "Franciscus lacobi Denanto sindit" "Franciscus Denanto de Sabaudia" (but the locality of origin should be Nantua, in the present department of Ain). The date of birth, according to De Vesme, should be placed no later than 1490 since in a document from 1524, preserved in the State Archives in Rome, a certain Franciscu de Nempto from Savoy, a printer of painted papers in Rome, is already named "magister," with whom the artist can be identified. So, in 1524 the artist certainly wanders present in Rome, but it is not possible to determine how many years he remained in the city.

The only other noteworthy date is 1532, the year in which an edition of Orlando Furioso was published in Ferrara by Francesco Rosso di Valenza; for this edition Denanto engraved a frame, used for the frontispiece and later also to frame the portrait of Ludovico Ariosto inserted in the penultimate sheet of the volume. In the absence of documentary and literary records, his activity can be reconstructed solely on the basis of his engraving production consisting of 44 signed but undated woodcuts, mostly of which refer to the life of Christ.

Denanto's production has been consistently traced back to the Venetian artistic milieu, where it is likely that the woodcutter began his work among the many artisans devoted to engraving and book illustration. His broad and robust engraving language, his use of long parallel and crossed hatching in dense differentiated textures and other technical features reveal his study of Titianesque models of the second decade and the youthful woodcuts of Domenico Campagnola; but especially Venetian is the tendency "to a tonal and coloristic transcription, to be achieved by every fallback made available by the very possibilities of specific carving. Denanto availed himself of the graphic resources of black and white as of a pictorial palette, based on punctuations, interlacing, mottling and the like, summarized in clear on the background of the blanks" (De Witt, 1938). Stylistic elements inferred from Marcantonio and Parmigianino have led some to believe that De Nanto had contact with the works of these masters in the land of Emilia.

Bibliografia

Cfr. De Vesme, 1906, p. 1511; Kristeller P., Denanto, Francesco, in “Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart”, Leipzig, 1913, p. 63;  Zava Boccazzi F., Tracce per Gerolamo da Treviso il Giovane in alcune xilografie di Francesco de Nanto, in “Arte Veneta”, 1959, p. 73; I legni incisi della Galleria Estense. Quattro secoli di stampa nell'Italia Settentrionale, Modena, 1986, p. 136, n. 113 (G. Benassati), fig. 113; Dillon G., Denanto, Francesco, in “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, 1990; McDonald M. P., The Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus (1488-1539). A Renaissance Collector in Seville, London, 2004; C. Stella, Francesco De Nanto in Grafica d’Arte, ottobre-dicembre 1992, n. 12, pp. 6-9; Depaulis T., From Savoy to Rome: Francesco de Nanto, a Neglected Printmaker of the Early Sixteenth Century, in “Print Quarterly”, 2020, v. XXXVII, pp. 123-139.