- New
The Spinario
| Reference: | S47036 |
| Author | Marco DENTE detto "Marco da Ravenna" |
| Year: | 1520 ca. |
| Measures: | 170 x 250 mm |
€1,500.00
- New
| Reference: | S47036 |
| Author | Marco DENTE detto "Marco da Ravenna" |
| Year: | 1520 ca. |
| Measures: | 170 x 250 mm |
€1,500.00
Description
Engraving, ca. 1520/27, monogrammed “SR” in plate on pedestal and inscribed ROME IN CAPITOLIO on wall.
First and rare representation of the celebrated bronze statue exhibited in the Capitoline Museums.
The Spinario bronze (1st century BCE) was initially interpreted as Priapus, a pagan deity, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, in whom the attributes of fecundity were accentuated. The Spinario is recorded between 1165 and 1167 as being placed outside the Lateran Palace. When Sixtus IV (1471-1484) had the bronze artifacts from the Lateran area moved to the Campidoglio (now the Capitoline Museums), among them were the She-wolf and the Spinario. Included among the works exported by the French for the 1797 Treaty of Tolentino, the Spinario was later returned to the Papal State in mid-1816. Of the Spinario is preserved a splendid drawing by Jan Gossaert known as Mabuse (1478-1536) who, who came to Italy in 1508 in the retinue of Philip of Burgundy, left numerous drawings of major Roman antiquities. His drawing of the Spinario is preserved in Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit, Prenten kabinet (inv. AW1041). In addition to this first printed representation of Marco Dente, the statue was reproduced by Diana Scultori for the types of Claude Duchet(ti) and by anonymous engraver, probably Cornelis Cort. There are also versions edited by H. Van Schoel and additional versions for the types of Philip Thomassin in the Raccolta di Statue romane and an engraving by Francis Perrier in the Raccolta delle Statue antiche.
"The Spinario has always been admired," according to Haskell and Penny, "but contradictory themes may be detected in the descriptions of it: the subject was a shepherd boy but a heroic story was attached to him; the easy naturalism of the unstudied pose was appreciated, but some, looking at the head, found in it a certain archaic stiffness and Rubens in his treatment of the theme changed the head completely. During the last century the status of the sculpture has been enormously disputed. Other antique versions in marble have been discovered which are Hellenistic inventions with nothing archaic about the head and it has been proposed that the Spinario is a pastiche of the late Republican or early Imperial period in which the naturalism of this Hellenistic prototype is made more piquant by the addition of a head copied (or, possibly, literally taken) from an earlier Greek statue."
This engraving by Marco Dente is not known with the Antonio Salamanca’s address. The plate was probably destroyed during the Sack of Rome (1527) where the artist lost his life.
Good impression, printed on 16th-century paper without watermark, with unusually wide margins, in perfect condition.
Bibliografia
Le Blanc C., Manuel De L'amateur D'estampes, 32, V 2 p. 112; The Illustrated Bartsch, 480, V 0027 p. 152; Huelsen, 112 (nota).
Marco DENTE detto "Marco da Ravenna" (Ravenna 1496 - Roma 1527)
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The right name of this artist was Marco from Ravenna, not Silvestro as erroneously many people say due to the monogram RS, which has to be interpreted as ravenates sculpsit or sculptor. He came from a rich family of Ravenna, where he was born in 1493; he afterwards died in the Sack of Rome in 1527, as Zani says.
He went to Rome very likely in 1510 to work inside Baviera’s workshop, together with Marcantonio and Agostino Veneziano. In Rome, the artist from Ravenna, besides engraving the most beautuful examples of classical statuary, mainly devouted himself to the reproduction of Raphael’s drawings, as his collegue Raimondi.
Marco can be condidered a very uncommon artist, for he was the first to renew the school of Marcantonio, with “fully pictorial” prints.
Bartsch ascribes to him sixtytwo subjects, while Passavant says are sixtyfour.
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Marco DENTE detto "Marco da Ravenna" (Ravenna 1496 - Roma 1527)
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The right name of this artist was Marco from Ravenna, not Silvestro as erroneously many people say due to the monogram RS, which has to be interpreted as ravenates sculpsit or sculptor. He came from a rich family of Ravenna, where he was born in 1493; he afterwards died in the Sack of Rome in 1527, as Zani says.
He went to Rome very likely in 1510 to work inside Baviera’s workshop, together with Marcantonio and Agostino Veneziano. In Rome, the artist from Ravenna, besides engraving the most beautuful examples of classical statuary, mainly devouted himself to the reproduction of Raphael’s drawings, as his collegue Raimondi.
Marco can be condidered a very uncommon artist, for he was the first to renew the school of Marcantonio, with “fully pictorial” prints.
Bartsch ascribes to him sixtytwo subjects, while Passavant says are sixtyfour.
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