Bassanum

Rare large view of Bassano Romano, Latium.

The engraving is attribued to Valérien Regnard, engraver and publisher, active in Rome from 1626 until his death, around 1650.

After Nicolò Lorenese.

From 1631 to 1637, art collector and patron Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani commissioned engravings documenting his celebrated collection of antique sculpture. German, French, Flemish and Italian draftsmen and engravers collaborated in the endeavor, several of whom were residing at the Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome during these years. The ambitious enterprise resulted in the execution of about 330 copper plates and in a two-volume publication entitled Galleria Giustiniana.

Volume one is comprised of a title leaf, a portrait of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (pl. 2), dated 1631 and signed Claude Mellan, a simulated tablet bearing an inscription (pl. 153), and 150 engravings of full-length statues.

Volume two consists of a title leaf, five portraits of members of the Giustiniani family, a simulated tablet bearing an inscription (pl. 169), and representations of busts, reliefs, sacorphagi, altars and vases. Plates 153-168 are of buildings and properties belonging to the Marchese or commissioned by him, and of panoramas of Bassano and the island of Chios.

The coat-of-arms of Marchese Giustiniani is engraved on the pedestal of each sculpture or within the plate mark. Forty-five engravings are signed by Cornelis Bloemaert (Le Blanc 149-197), 38 by Michel Natalis (Renier 88a-124), 22 by Claude Mellan (IFF 209-230); others bear the names of Theodor Matham (Hollstein 44), Anna Maria Vaiana (I, 3, II, 33, 52; Bartsch 2-4) and the monogram of Giovanni Luigi Valesio (Ill. Bartsch, vol. 40, nos. 063-075). Joachim von Sandrart signed 30 plates in the role of draftsman or designer and supervised the work of several collaborators. Many engravings are unsigned.