The Birth of the Virgin

Engraving, circa 1530, dated on plate. Example of the second state of four with the date 1540 and the address of Salamanca. A good impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, irregularly trimmed at the platemark, perfect repaired areas in the central part, otherwise in very good conditions.

The engraving appears to be a copy of the work of Beatricetto, after a drawing of Baccio Bandinelli, as stated in the inscription that accompanies it : Bacius Floreninus Inventor.Nicolaus Beatricius Ltharingus restituit.

The work of Bandinelli, now in the Uffizi in Florence, in all probability was to be a preliminary sketch for the bas-relief at the Basilica of Loreto. This first project was later modified. Always in the Uffizi, it keeps a second preparatory drawing much closer to the bas-relief. The first project was, however, remained to be reworked - with several expansions - in engraving. The composition is on two levels, in a style that shows a preference Bandinelli in his designs for engravings, just think of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi. The scene is crowded: in a big room, around St. Anne, mother of the Virgin, several women are bustling in different duties and responsibilities, others rush from the lower floor, via the stairs in the foreground, while the background to the right, a woman looks out of the door. The technique used by this anonymous engraver is full of sharp lines which serve to emphasize the profiles and contours. At the beginning of the century, a similar technique was used by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, from which the engraver was probably affected. Is advanced by some scholars the name of Agostino Veneziano that we have also impacted by the inventions of Baccio Bandinelli.