Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
| Reference: | S36091 |
| Author | Marcantonio RAIMONDI |
| Year: | 1518 ca. |
| Measures: | 567 x 467 mm |
€1,300.00
| Reference: | S36091 |
| Author | Marcantonio RAIMONDI |
| Year: | 1518 ca. |
| Measures: | 567 x 467 mm |
€1,300.00
Description
Engraving, 157-18, without date and signature.
A very good impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, with watermak “anchor in a circle”, perfectly executed reapirs at the bottom corners, otherwise very good condition.
This is an unusual print with completely finished in all of its worked portions and large areas left completely blank. It also present a vexing problem of attribution.
Most early authors, beginning with Vasari, attributed it to one of Marcantonio Raimondi's followers. Mariette suggested that Marcantonio began the engraving and an inferior artist continued, which opinion was accepted by Shoemaker, for many of the figures are awkwardly worked in a series of short parallel strokes that run perpendicular to the contours and outright errors in the bases and capitals of the columns and in the ill-drawn pediment over the doorway to the temple in the right back-ground.
Marcantonio’s unfinished proof of the “Reconciliation of Minerva and Cupid” demonstrates the process trough which the engraver worked the plate, and suggests thath Mariette’s proposal may have been correct.
The author of the model for the Solomon and Sheba is no less speculative. Mariette believed that Raphael’s scene of the same subject in Vaticano Logge was Marcantonio’s model, and indeed a study for it ultimately may have been. Passavant also recognized the engraving’s connection with a fresco in a vault of the Palazzo Cancelleria in Rome, a work that he dated in mid-16th century. Recent scholars have attribuited the Cancelleria fresco to Baldassarre Peruzzi and date it ca. 1519-20.
There is no question that Peruzzi’s and Marcantonio’s compositions are closer to one amother than they are to the fresco in the Logge. Nevertheless, the source for Marcantonio’s work seems to have a work designed by Raphael and not Peruzzi’s fresco, because Marcantonio’s figures are far closer to a Raphaelesque conception than they are to the stiff and awkward poses of Peruzzi’s figures. The figure od Sheba moves in graceful spiral, while Peruzzi’s advances stiffly with a rather mannered gesture; all of Peruzzi’s figures are in much stricter profile, whereas Marcantonio’s turn in a graceful and more three dimensional manner. The model for Marcantonio’s engraving thus would seem to have originated in the workshop of Raphael during the period of the Logge. Because of the inconsistent style of the engraving, it is not possible to suggest a date for the work more precise than sometime after 1517-18.
Bibliografia
Bartsch XIV.13.13 Adam Bartsch, Le peintre-graveur, vols. 21, Vienna 1803-21; Passavant VI.51.4 (as Agostino Musi) Johann David Passavant, Le peintre-graveur, 6 vols., Leipzig 1860-64; Delaborde 1888, p. 296, no. 1 (as falsely attributed to Marcantonio Raimondi) Henri Delaborde, Marc-Antoine Raimondi: Étude historique et critique suivie d'un catalogue raisonné des oeuvres du maitre, Paris 1888; Shoemaker 1981, no. 54 Innis H. Shoemaker, The Engravings of Marcantonio Raimondi, exhibition catalogue, Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art 1981; Raphael Invenit, p. 166, no. VI.1 (? state of two) 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; Gnann, Roma e lo stile classico di Raffello, no. 14.
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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