Fiorenza

Reference: S9557
Author Francesco VALEGIO
Year: 1585 ca.
Zone: Florence
Printed: Venice
Measures: 127 x 84 mm
€300.00

Reference: S9557
Author Francesco VALEGIO
Year: 1585 ca.
Zone: Florence
Printed: Venice
Measures: 127 x 84 mm
€300.00

Description

View of Florence from Monte Oliveto, based on the model introduced by Francesco Rosselli in the late 15th century, the so called Veduta della Catena (view with the chain). View taken from La Raccolta di le piu illustri et famose citta di tutto il mondo, published by Francesco Valegio in Venice towards the end of the XVI century, containing about 322 plans and views of the main cities of the World.

There are different examples of this work, every one with a different number of plates and without an index. Many of these plates have been afterwards included in Donato Rasciotti's Nuova raccolta di tutte le più illustri et famose città di tutto il mondo, printed at the end of the XVI century. It is still, however, quite unclear whether Valegio or Rasciotti published first his collection.

Francesco Valegio was born in Bologna around 1560, even though some say he might have been born in Verona; as engraver and calcographer, he worked in Venice, very often in association with other publishers. The plates of his series, which can be considered his most important work, do not bear any date, except for those of Algeri, Costantinopoli and Rodi, signed by Martino Rota, dated 1572. The city plans signed by Rota, (engraver born in Sebenico who worked in Venice until 1573), are the most ancient core of the work, which make us think that this work has been planned by Rota himself. Many plates recall the figurative models of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum printed between 1572 and 1588 (afterwards reissued until 1617) by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg. It is possible that Valegio started to select the plates by Rota around 1580 and afterwards enlarged his collection at the end of the century. 112 plates bear Valegio's signature or monogram and as many can be ascribed to him; 69 have been ascribed to an unkwown artist. The collection was extremely successful and became the base for the following copies. Valegio's plate have been reissued by Raffaello Savonarola (Lasor a Varea) in the Universus Terrarum Orbis in 1 713. There are 52 plates depicting the peninsula.

A distinctive element of this corpus is the presence of a number (from 1 to 60) with ancient ink, on the white upper margin; that makes us presume that these examples come from another collection of Valegio, Raccolta delle più famose Città di Italia, which he created by changing the front page of his previuos publication.

“La cosiddetta Veduta della Catena, è la prima rappresentazione conosciuta di una intera città, risultato non di una proiezione fantasiosa, ma di una costruzione che, basata sull’osservazione diretta dal vero, si avvale anche della prospettiva. Questa grande silografia, come ha dimostrato Hülsen, deriva dall’opera originale a bulino, su sei lastre di rame, attribuita a Francesco Rosselli, di cui oggi è conservato solo un frammento, raffigurante la campagna in direzione di Fiesole. La copia silografica, attribuita già da Kristeller a Luca Antonio degli Uberti è conservata presso il Gabinetto delle Stampe di Berlino. La silografia con ogni probabilità è stata realizzata nella prima decade del XVI secolo a Venezia, come indicato dal tratteggio a linee parallele nelle zone d’ombra, che si utilizza solo nella prima decade del sec. XVI. Rispetto al modello fiorentino, Lucantonio degli Uberti introduce due elementi innovativi: la figura dell’artista disegnatore, in basso a destra, e il motivo decorativo della catena, chiusa in alto a sinistra da un lucchetto – di qui la denominazione Veduta della Catena - per cui sono state fornite diverse interpretazioni. Il punto di osservazione principale è da sud-ovest, in corrispondenza del campanile della chiesa di Monte Oliveto, ed è stato rialzato per dare maggiore leggibilità alle emergenze architettoniche e al tessuto urbano. Nella veduta l’asse centrale verticale viene fatto coincidere con l’asse della cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore che, simbolo religioso e civile della città, diventa così elemento principale e punto costante di riferimento nella rappresentazione della città stessa. La veduta crea un campo spaziale continuo che non solo mostra gli edifici, ma anche gli spazi aperti, le piazze e anche il corso delle strade di recente realizzazione, e non ancora chiuse dagli edifici che saranno costruiti lungo i loro lati. I monumenti della città sono quindi disposti nella pianta in modo da riflettere le reali relazioni tra di loro. Fuori dalle mura della città, l’immagine restituisce le principali caratteristiche del paesaggio naturale: vista da sud-est, la pianta mostra la città delimitata a nord dalla parete naturale degli Appenini; la valle del Mugnone, attraverso la quale passa la strada che collega la città a Bologna, crea una spettacolare apertura tra le montagne nell’angolo superiore a sinistra. Fiesole e S. Domenico sono rappresentate con un gruppo di edifici sormontati dal toponimo. Il convento di S. Miniato e di S. Francesco segnano le vette che dominano la città da sud. L’Arno attraversa diagonalmente l’immagine tagliando la città in due parti. Dunque, la rappresentazione del paesaggio non è né evocativo né poetico. Questa rappresentazione senza soluzione di continuità tra la città, fulcro dell’immagine, e il paesaggio, risponde sia alla realtà politica, in quanto i territori rappresentati appartengono di fatto allo Stato fiorentino, sia ad un’ambizione pittorica: sia la città che il paesaggio circostante sono concepiti come uno spazio topografico unitario. La veduta riporta il titolo FIORENZA, variante poetica del toponimo che, come sottolinea David Friedman, fa allusione ai concetti di “fiore” e di “fioritura” e viene usata con intento celebrativo, collegata ai concetti di pace e prosperità” (cfr. Bifolco-Ronca, Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, pp. 2148-2149)

Copper engraving, particularly rich and with good contrast, in excellent condition.

 

Very rare.

Francesco VALEGIO (1570 ca. – 1643 ca.)

Francesco Valegio engraver and printer, active between 1570 and 1643 ca According to Gori Gambellini, was born in Bologna in 1560, while the Salsa, taking up the study of Zari, validating the source of Verona, including as regards the date of his death, apparently took place in Verona around 1641 to 1643 approximately (U. Thieme - Becker F.). His activity as an engraver and printer took place mainly in Venice, often in collaboration with other printers including Dorino Catarino (or Doino) with which reissued the map of Venice by Franco in 1574 and a plant in Vicenza in 1611. It should also be reminded of a paper of the Duchy of Savoy, first published by Ferrante Bertelli in 1562, the date was later revised edition in 1600 and with execudit Donato Rasicotti and Francesco Valegio. With the example of this and other prints, including maps, the Almagia Valegio claimed that he had released a large number of fakes and reproductions of works by other engravers. The most challenging part of the cartographic work Valegio is the "Collection of the most illustrious et famous cities around the world," the tables in the corpus are not dated, with the exception of Algiers, Constantinople and Rhodes signed by Martino Rota Sibenik, where it appears the year 1572. The plants and views that have the signature of the Rota are the oldest part of the collection and are likely to conclude that the editorial project has been started dall'incisore the early '70s of the sixteenth century and left unfinished in 1573 as a result of its Transfer to Vienna as court portraitist. The presence of such cards has led to the work dating to 1579. However, a date well in advance referring to the entire collection, it would seem highly unlikely in that it goes counter to the biographical data of Valegio (on that date would have been little more than 15 years) wanted to pursue the study of the Salsa and also many of the images are influenced by models in the first volumes of figurative Civitates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, published between 1572 and 1588. Throughout the collection of engravings, namely 112, bear the signature or initials of Valegio, which without any doubt can be attributed to the authorship of the entire work. The expansion of the number of images, from 270 to 322, the net change of the hand and artistic quality of the engraving, the sizes of the specimens, leading to think that the volume has had a long gestation and articulate. Copies present in Rome, Florence and London are composed of a variable number of boards 234 and 250 and contain all three units of the 112 cards signed by Valegio. The images are part of these collections are the oldest part of the Collection for which it is engraved with the famous title page. In the years that followed were recorded by a completely different hand, much more coarse and imprecise, 69 maps and views that differ from the previous series for a different layout, all bearing a white stripe at the bottom (18 mm), in which often, but not always appear in titles or descriptions of the cities represented in the image. Copies of these characteristics are those preserved in Venice, Florence and Washington. In difficult times to be specified with a date, but certainly to be placed first edition edited by Rasicotti the Valegio in circulation a new cover, entitled Collection Dile most famous cities of Italy, this time addressed to the local market, in many collection only collects the views of Italian cities. 'S full copy of all images is sold later by the publisher of Venetian origin Rasciotti Donato, publisher of other maps of cities in the late sixteenth century. A plan of 1599, representing Brescia, calls himself "Donald Rasciotti in Venetia to the bridge of Barettari" while in the theater of the most illustrious et famous cities in the world has the address "A Bridge To Venetia Bare.ri" The original branches of Velegio Francis had a long life and find them printed again in 1713, Savonarola in the work of Raphael (also known as Alfonsus LaSor Varea A, 1680 -1748) Universus Terrarum Orbis. The Valegio represents a very significant figure in the horizon editorial copperplate of Venice at the turn of the century. According to the sauce, the criticism has been strongly oriented to a purely aesthetic assessment, which has long neglected "the multifarious activities of this interesting and eclectic set of copperplate engraver and publisher.

Francesco VALEGIO (1570 ca. – 1643 ca.)

Francesco Valegio engraver and printer, active between 1570 and 1643 ca According to Gori Gambellini, was born in Bologna in 1560, while the Salsa, taking up the study of Zari, validating the source of Verona, including as regards the date of his death, apparently took place in Verona around 1641 to 1643 approximately (U. Thieme - Becker F.). His activity as an engraver and printer took place mainly in Venice, often in collaboration with other printers including Dorino Catarino (or Doino) with which reissued the map of Venice by Franco in 1574 and a plant in Vicenza in 1611. It should also be reminded of a paper of the Duchy of Savoy, first published by Ferrante Bertelli in 1562, the date was later revised edition in 1600 and with execudit Donato Rasicotti and Francesco Valegio. With the example of this and other prints, including maps, the Almagia Valegio claimed that he had released a large number of fakes and reproductions of works by other engravers. The most challenging part of the cartographic work Valegio is the "Collection of the most illustrious et famous cities around the world," the tables in the corpus are not dated, with the exception of Algiers, Constantinople and Rhodes signed by Martino Rota Sibenik, where it appears the year 1572. The plants and views that have the signature of the Rota are the oldest part of the collection and are likely to conclude that the editorial project has been started dall'incisore the early '70s of the sixteenth century and left unfinished in 1573 as a result of its Transfer to Vienna as court portraitist. The presence of such cards has led to the work dating to 1579. However, a date well in advance referring to the entire collection, it would seem highly unlikely in that it goes counter to the biographical data of Valegio (on that date would have been little more than 15 years) wanted to pursue the study of the Salsa and also many of the images are influenced by models in the first volumes of figurative Civitates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, published between 1572 and 1588. Throughout the collection of engravings, namely 112, bear the signature or initials of Valegio, which without any doubt can be attributed to the authorship of the entire work. The expansion of the number of images, from 270 to 322, the net change of the hand and artistic quality of the engraving, the sizes of the specimens, leading to think that the volume has had a long gestation and articulate. Copies present in Rome, Florence and London are composed of a variable number of boards 234 and 250 and contain all three units of the 112 cards signed by Valegio. The images are part of these collections are the oldest part of the Collection for which it is engraved with the famous title page. In the years that followed were recorded by a completely different hand, much more coarse and imprecise, 69 maps and views that differ from the previous series for a different layout, all bearing a white stripe at the bottom (18 mm), in which often, but not always appear in titles or descriptions of the cities represented in the image. Copies of these characteristics are those preserved in Venice, Florence and Washington. In difficult times to be specified with a date, but certainly to be placed first edition edited by Rasicotti the Valegio in circulation a new cover, entitled Collection Dile most famous cities of Italy, this time addressed to the local market, in many collection only collects the views of Italian cities. 'S full copy of all images is sold later by the publisher of Venetian origin Rasciotti Donato, publisher of other maps of cities in the late sixteenth century. A plan of 1599, representing Brescia, calls himself "Donald Rasciotti in Venetia to the bridge of Barettari" while in the theater of the most illustrious et famous cities in the world has the address "A Bridge To Venetia Bare.ri" The original branches of Velegio Francis had a long life and find them printed again in 1713, Savonarola in the work of Raphael (also known as Alfonsus LaSor Varea A, 1680 -1748) Universus Terrarum Orbis. The Valegio represents a very significant figure in the horizon editorial copperplate of Venice at the turn of the century. According to the sauce, the criticism has been strongly oriented to a purely aesthetic assessment, which has long neglected "the multifarious activities of this interesting and eclectic set of copperplate engraver and publisher.