Molis aeneae, quam fusilli artificio URNABUS VIII PNT MAX ...

Engraving, 1685, lettered along top: Molis aeneae, quam fusilli artificio URNABUS VIII PNT MAX super SS Apostolorum/ PETRI PAULI tumulum excitavit, ornavique, Ioannes Laurentius Berninus Eaques/ qui in Templo Vaticano opus perfecit hic delineationem expressit along bottom: Cum Privil. Summi Pontif.  and Aegid. Patigny Sculp. Roma.

Good example, printed on contemporary laid, watermarked, paper.

Published and engraved by Matteo Gregorio de Rossi, this work is a copy of an engraving by Johann Friedrich Greuter published in Rome around 1635 (Holl. XII, 23a).

“During his pontificate, Urban VIII was criticized for the grandeur of the works of art he commissioned. One of these was the enormous altar of St Peter’s which stands 30 metres high and took Bernini nine years to complete (1624-33). The commission marked the beginning of an association with St Peter's which was to last for over half a century, during which time Bernini was responsible for almost all the major works there (Wittkower 1966, Pp. 17-24; Borsi 1980, pp. 41-60; Lavin 2005).

As shown in this print, the Baldacchino design incorporates four enormous Solomonic columns, modelled on those in Old St Peter's. The lower part of each column has helical grooves and the upper sections a relief of olive and bay branches decorated with putti and the Barberini bees. The Barberini coat of arms appear on the pedestal of each column, the sun (another Barberini emblem) on the frieze and more bees on the lappets hanging between. The upper framework is like an open ogival dome supporting the orb and cross. At each corner stands an angel holding a garland from which the canopy is ‘suspended’. Bernini's innovation was to fuse three traditional forms that Lavin regards as 'honorific covering’: the architectural ciborium supported on columns, the processional baldachin carried on staves, and the canopy suspended from above (Lavin 1980, 1, p. 20).” (M. McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo, v.1, 1733, p. 74)

Matteo Gregorio De Rossi is an exponent of one of the branches of the famous Roman printing house. Towards the end of the sixteenth century began the editorial activity of Antonio De Rossi, who with his sons Giuseppe the Elder and Giulio, founded the printing house that, over the next two centuries and through four generations, held the monopoly of chalcographic production in the city. The workshop had the sign “De Rossi alla Pace”. The history of the De Rossi family is characterized by internal disputes and contrasts that lead to the opening of individual printing houses in competition with each other. Giulio De Rossi's sons, Giuseppe the Younger and Giovanni Battista, nephews of Giuseppe De Rossi the Elder, had founded in 1628 their own workshop in the vicinity - at the corner of Via di Parione and Via della Pace near the church of S. Biagio della Fossa - but in 1635 Giovanni Battista in turn separated from his brother and opened a workshop in Piazza Navona, the third of the family. In 1644, after the death of Giuseppe the Younger, his brother Giovanni Battista became the most direct competitor of his uncle's workshop, the De Rossi alla Pace, now run by his widow along with their children who were then partly still minors. Giovanni Battista's son, Matteo Gregorio De Rossi, continued his father's publishing activity, dedicating himself with success also to the activity of engraver. The main collaborator of the typography of Giovanni Battista and Matteo Gregorio was a great artist of the caliber of Lievin Cruyl, who used the typography for the translation into print of many of his drawings on Rome. Matteo Gregorio, in constant rivalry with his cousin Giovanni Giacomo (1627-1691) of the printing house alla Pace, had Tiburzio Vergelli carve a collection of the main monuments of Rome inspired - if not copied - by Giovan Battista Falda.