Ecce Homo (Christ before Pilate)
| Reference: | S25405 |
| Author | Andrea MELDOLLA detto Schiavone |
| Year: | 1560 ca. |
| Measures: | 190 x 281 mm |
€3,000.00
| Reference: | S25405 |
| Author | Andrea MELDOLLA detto Schiavone |
| Year: | 1560 ca. |
| Measures: | 190 x 281 mm |
€3,000.00
Description
Woodcut, about 1560, without signature. After Titian or Domenico Campagnola.
A beautiful impression, rich in tone, printed on contemporary laid paper without watermark, showing the borderline, small wormholes perfectly restored, otherwise in excellent condition.
The work can be traced back to the works of the mid-16th-century Venetian school. The woodcut is mentioned by Abbot Pietro Zani in his Enciclopedia metodica (1821, Part Two, Volume VII, pp. 286-287):
“Campagnola Domenico - Anonimo in legno sopra i tratti del Campagnola MP irreperibile. Sole figure di faccia a.10, 6. l. 7,4 Al b. ECCE HOMO. D. P. -- N. S. ha le mani legate, e tra queste tiene la canna. Pilato a lui vicino colla d. lo addita al Popolo, che si finge essere nel piano, ma che qui non vi ha luogo. Le due iniziali D. P. dinotano Dominicus Patavinus, cioè Domenico Padovano, ossia Domenico Campagnola. Ammirata una sola volta in Venezia in casa del S. Gio Maria Sasso, celebre Professore e Ristauratore di Quadri. Ed ecco che con queste due iniziali D. P. e con le seguenti lettere DNCUS PATUS (così abbreviate e in due righe), le quali leggonsi in altra Stampa, abbiamo una sicura prova che Domenico Campagnola era Padovano, e non Veneziano. Vedi Tomo V Parte Prima le Annotazioni 33a, 34a, 35a relative al Campagnola, e le Contro-Note, e direi quasi stupisci”.
Zani describes, therefore, the example from Giovanni Maria Sasso's print collection, which was acquired by the Remondini after his death (Zani 1819, p. 53 n.21). Another known example of the work is the one preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. It is a very late proof, printed from a wood in a very poor state of preservation, probably printed by the Soliani typography during the 19th century (cf. Atlante delle xilografie italiane del Rinascimento, ALU.1067.2).
While Zani attributes the carving to an anonymous hand from a subject by Domenico Campagnola, more complex reasoning leads us to attribute the woodcut to Andrea Meldolla.
Titian, realizing the great potential of the woodcut in the translation of his drawings and visions bolder, entrusted to a group of artists - among others composed by Domenico Campagnola, Nicolò Boldrini, Giovanni Britto and Giuseppe Scolari - the creation of these “carved designs in wood”.
Andrea Meldolla called Schiavone, a former student and translator of the works by Parmigianino, is the author of some three woodcuts, different in style enforceable. Christ Mocked and the Entombment of Christ present elegance of manners and a linear clarity resulting from the influence exercised by the art of Salviati, while the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of some woodcuts shows the vigor of youth Domenico Campagnola. The theme of Christ before Pilate is the most common in the catalog of the mature Meldolla. There are, in fact, four different versions of paintings, divided between the Accademia Gallery in Venice, the National Museum in Stockholm, the Royal Collections at Hampton Court and Kunst-historisches Museum in Vienna. This series can be ideally complemented by Christ before Herod the Museum of Capodimonte. The Meldolla here reinforced the system of chiaroscuro, insisting on a background of dark and burnished tones enlivened by just switching luminist precious and subtly calibrated, as in this woodcut. The Richardson points out that the engravings of Meldolla, though based on compositions by other artists, are free interpretations or creative copying.
Very rare and interesting work, ascribed to Schiavone. Silvia Urbini, in her census of Italian woodcuts of the Renaissance, mentions and illustrates only our example and the late one in the Ambrosiana. We have no records of other examples of the work.
Bibliografia
Zani P., Enciclopedia metodica critico ragionata delle Belle Arti, Parma, 1817-1824, Parte seconda, volume VII, pp.286-287; Urbini S., Atlante delle xilografie italiane del Rinascimento, ALU.1067.1; cfr. Muraro & Rosand, Tiziano e la Xilografia Veneziana del Cinquecento, pp. 140/143; Richardson 1980, pp. 104/108; Da Tiziano a El Greco, pp. 23-25, 130-137, 300-313; Bortolotti, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 73.
Andrea MELDOLLA detto Schiavone (Zara 1510 - Venezia, 1 Dicembre 1563)
|
Dalmatian painter, draughtsman and etcher, active in Italy. He belonged to a prominent family who had settled in Zara but were originally from Méldola in the Romagna. He may have been taught painting either in Zara or in Venice by Lorenzo Luzzo or Giovanni Pietro Luzzo, who were active in both cities. According to another theory, he was trained in the Venetian workshop of Bonifazio de’ Pitati, but this would not account for his later proficiency as a fresco painter. As an etcher, he seems to have been essentially self-taught, working initially from drawings by Parmigianino. By the late 1530s Schiavone seems to have been established in Venice. In 1540 Giorgio Vasari relates about a large battle painting (untraced), ‘one of the best [works] that Andrea Schiavone ever did’ (Vasari, 1568). Schiavone’s first surviving paintings and etchings probably date from c. 1538–40; they show that he was strongly influenced by Parmigianino and central Italian Mannerists in figural and compositional modes, but was also a strikingly daring exponent of Venetian painterly techniques; he employed an equally free technique in etching. Several paintings, for example the large-scale Four Women in a Landscape and the small-scale Two Men, carry his ‘technique of spots, or sketches’ (Vasari) so far that the subjects have not been identified.
|
Andrea MELDOLLA detto Schiavone (Zara 1510 - Venezia, 1 Dicembre 1563)
|
Dalmatian painter, draughtsman and etcher, active in Italy. He belonged to a prominent family who had settled in Zara but were originally from Méldola in the Romagna. He may have been taught painting either in Zara or in Venice by Lorenzo Luzzo or Giovanni Pietro Luzzo, who were active in both cities. According to another theory, he was trained in the Venetian workshop of Bonifazio de’ Pitati, but this would not account for his later proficiency as a fresco painter. As an etcher, he seems to have been essentially self-taught, working initially from drawings by Parmigianino. By the late 1530s Schiavone seems to have been established in Venice. In 1540 Giorgio Vasari relates about a large battle painting (untraced), ‘one of the best [works] that Andrea Schiavone ever did’ (Vasari, 1568). Schiavone’s first surviving paintings and etchings probably date from c. 1538–40; they show that he was strongly influenced by Parmigianino and central Italian Mannerists in figural and compositional modes, but was also a strikingly daring exponent of Venetian painterly techniques; he employed an equally free technique in etching. Several paintings, for example the large-scale Four Women in a Landscape and the small-scale Two Men, carry his ‘technique of spots, or sketches’ (Vasari) so far that the subjects have not been identified.
|