Galatea
| Reference: | S36066 |
| Author | Marcantonio RAIMONDI |
| Year: | 1515 ca. |
| Measures: | 285 x 404 mm |
| Reference: | S36066 |
| Author | Marcantonio RAIMONDI |
| Year: | 1515 ca. |
| Measures: | 285 x 404 mm |
Description
Engraving, ca. 1515 – 1516, signed with an empty tablet at lower right.
A great and early impression, printed with tone on contemporary laid paper, tirmmed to the borderline, some small abrasions, expert repairs at the bottom, otherwise good condition.
The Triumph of Galatea is closely related to Raphael’s famous fresco of that subject in the Villa Farnesina, Rome, a work considered to have been begun in 1511 and probably completed in 1512.
It’s one of Marcantonio’s most finished and complex compositions, and is also one of only a few that could be thought to have been based directly upon a painting. Perhaps these two aspects have been the cause for the controversy concerning not only the attribution and dating of the Galatea, but also the nature of the source used.
Mariette Bartsch and Delaborde praised the Galatea as one of Marcantonio’s finest work, Kristeller found it unworthy of Marcanotonio, and Davidson tentatively suggests suggests the participation of Agostino Veneziano in its execution.
The doubts about the quality of the work center around the noticeably unstructured technique of hatching that Marcantonio employed in its execution and the undisciplined use of stippling over the surfaces of the figures. The style gives the engraving a blurred softness that is not usually associated with Marcantonio’s sculptural treatment of form after 1512. After that date Marcantonio’s works display an increasingly systematic and controlled burin technique. Kristeller and Davidson attribute the coarseness of tecnique to the partecipation of an assistant; or – Davidson also suggests – Marcantonio was attempting to reproduce the soft effect of a red chalk drawing.
The composition is so closely related to the fresco that the source was either a quite complete drawing or the finished fresco itslef, like Oberhuber suggests. This possibility might help to explain the unusual technique of the Galatea .
About the dating, certainly it is not before 1512, the earliest possible date for the fresco’s completion.
The presence of the tablet, in the lower right, suggests a date of ca. 1515 or later if that is the date when the tablet first occurs in Marcantonio’s work. So, a date of ca. 1515-16 seems reasonable.
The Galathea thus seems to show the engraver in a transitional phase of his evolution, using a technique that he quickly abandoned in favor of a more carefully controlled system.
A great example of this masterpiece.
Literature: Bartsch XIV.262.350 Adam Bartsch, Le peintre-graveur, vols. 21, Vienna 1803-21;
Passavant VI.30.192 ;Johann David Passavant, Le peintre-graveur, 6 vols., Leipzig 1860-64;
Delaborde 1888, no. 130 Henri Delaborde, Marc-Antoine Raimondi: Étude historique et critique suivie d'un catalogue raisonné des oeuvres du maitre, Paris 1888
Shoemaker 1981, no. 33Innis H. Shoemaker, The Engravings of Marcantonio Raimondi, exhibition catalogue, Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art 1981
Raphael Invenit, p. 150, no. VI.1 Grazia Bernini Pezzini, Stefania Massari et al., Raphael invenit: Stampe da Raffaello nelle collezioni dell'Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Calcografia Nazionale 1985
Marcantonio RAIMONDI (Sant'Andrea in Argine 1480 circa - Bologna 1534)
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Marcantonio Raimondi is considered the greatest engraver of early Renaissance and the first to spread the work of Raphael. He was born in San’Andrea in Argine, near Bologna. His first artistic apprenticeship took place in Bologna, around 1504, in the workshop of Francesco Francia, painter and goldsmith.
His first known engraving is dated 1505. In 1506 he went to Venice to live and work; in this year, he started developing his own personal style for, in his production of that period, is quite evident the influence of Mantegna and Dürer. According to Vasari, Raimondi met Dürer in Venice, for they were both living there at the same time, but they had a quarrel over the reproductions, on copper, of Dürer’s seventeen woodcuts of the Vita della Vergine. After 1507, he turned to different models, especially those coming from Rome and Florence. He was in Rome in 1509, where he was introduced into the circle of the most important artists working in the City, such as Jacopo Rimanda from Bologna. In the same year he met Rapahel in the workshop of Baviera; the following year Raimondi became popular as the main interpreter of Raphael’s paintings. The Lucrezia can be considered the starting point of their cooperation and a sort of second beginning for Raimondi’s new style. In any case, together with the engravings representing Raphael’s works, Raimondi went on with the publication of his own subjects, especially antiquity, whose influence can be seen in his whole production (cfr. Dubois-Reymond 1978).
Between 1515-1516 Marcantonio started showing a keen interest for chiaroscuro, maybe under the influence fo Agostino Veneziano and Marco Dente, from Baviera’s workshop.
Till Raphael’s death, in 1520, Raimondi worked and lived in the background of the great artist from Urbino and engraved his works and those of his scholars.
His business went down after the Sacco (sack) Di Roma in 1527, when he was obliged to pay a huge amount of money to the invaders of the City to save his life.
He died in Bologna before 1534, in complete misery.
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Marcantonio RAIMONDI (Sant'Andrea in Argine 1480 circa - Bologna 1534)
|
Marcantonio Raimondi is considered the greatest engraver of early Renaissance and the first to spread the work of Raphael. He was born in San’Andrea in Argine, near Bologna. His first artistic apprenticeship took place in Bologna, around 1504, in the workshop of Francesco Francia, painter and goldsmith.
His first known engraving is dated 1505. In 1506 he went to Venice to live and work; in this year, he started developing his own personal style for, in his production of that period, is quite evident the influence of Mantegna and Dürer. According to Vasari, Raimondi met Dürer in Venice, for they were both living there at the same time, but they had a quarrel over the reproductions, on copper, of Dürer’s seventeen woodcuts of the Vita della Vergine. After 1507, he turned to different models, especially those coming from Rome and Florence. He was in Rome in 1509, where he was introduced into the circle of the most important artists working in the City, such as Jacopo Rimanda from Bologna. In the same year he met Rapahel in the workshop of Baviera; the following year Raimondi became popular as the main interpreter of Raphael’s paintings. The Lucrezia can be considered the starting point of their cooperation and a sort of second beginning for Raimondi’s new style. In any case, together with the engravings representing Raphael’s works, Raimondi went on with the publication of his own subjects, especially antiquity, whose influence can be seen in his whole production (cfr. Dubois-Reymond 1978).
Between 1515-1516 Marcantonio started showing a keen interest for chiaroscuro, maybe under the influence fo Agostino Veneziano and Marco Dente, from Baviera’s workshop.
Till Raphael’s death, in 1520, Raimondi worked and lived in the background of the great artist from Urbino and engraved his works and those of his scholars.
His business went down after the Sacco (sack) Di Roma in 1527, when he was obliged to pay a huge amount of money to the invaders of the City to save his life.
He died in Bologna before 1534, in complete misery.
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