The Statue of the Nile and Tiber

Pair of engravings, 1545 circa, ascribed to Nicolas Betarizet.

Engraving, 1545 circa, lettered at top right with a long address to the reader by Lafrery and a description of the statue:
ECCE.TIBI.CANDIDE.LECTOR.TIBERIS.FLVVI.SIMVLACHRVM.EID.LVPA.ROMVLVM.REMVM.QVE / CONDITOREIS. VRBEIS. LACTANS.INDICAT.DVPLICI.INSIGNE. ET SCVLTVRAE.MAIES / TATE. ET.IN.EIVS.FLVMINIS.PROPRIEIS.EXPLICANDEIS. EXCELLENTIA. ....EST AVTEM / HOC.EX.ANTIQVO.MARMOREO / SIMVLACHRO.QVOD.IN / VATICANO.ADHVC.EXTAT.DI / LIGENTER.DEFORMATVM.ET / IN.HAC.TABELLA.ANT.LA / FRERI.AENEIS.FORMIS / AD.AMVSSIM / EXCVSVM.

First state, of four.

Magnificient example, printed on contemporary laid paper, with “triple mount with tree in a circle” watermark, trimmed close to platemark, in excellent condition. 542 x 337 mm.

The colossal ancient statue of Tiber River was unearthed in Rome in January 1512. Pope Julius II immediately acquired the work for his sculpture garden in Vatican, alredy famous for such antiquities as the Laocoon and the Apollo Belvedere.


Engraving, 1545 circa, lettered at the top right with a long address to the reader by Lafrery and a description of the statue VETERUM MONUMENTORUM STUDIOSE LECTOR QUM EXCELLENS ANTIQUOR SCULPTORUM EX HAC TABELLA INGENIUM LAUDAVERIS NATURAE DEINCEPS MIRACULA QUAE IN EA EXCUSA VISUNTUR CONTEMPLARE NILI AEGYPTII AMNIS TOTIUS ORBIS MAXIMI HEIC TINEI SIMULACHRUM PROPONITUR…...ANT LAFRERI AENEA TABULA NUNC PROFERT EX ANTIQUO SIMULACHRO QUOD IN VATICANO ADHUC CONSPICITUR EXACTE EFFIGIATA'.

First state, of three.

Magnificient example, printed on contemporary laid paper, with “shield with coat of arms of the Pope and fleur-de-lys” watermark, trimmed close to platemark, in excellent condition. 558 x 334 mm.

This colossal statue of the Nile – now at Vatican Museum - was found in 1513 in Campo Marzio where it was probably part of the decoration of the Iseo Campense, dedicated to the Egyptian deities Isis and Serapis. The river is shown as a venerable old man stretched out on his side with a cornucopia of fruit in his left arm and ears of wheat in his right hand. Egypt is represented by the presence of a sphinx, on which the figure of the Nile supports himself, and by some exotic animals. The scene is enlivened by sixteen children who allude to the sixteen cubits of water by which the Nile rises for its annual flood. The base of the statue is decorated with a Nile landscape with pygmies, hippopotamus and crocodiles. The sculpture was probably inspired by a monumental statue of the Nile in black basalt, a masterpiece of Alexandrian Greek sculpture, which Pliny the Elder described as being within the Forum of Peace.
The attribution of these engravings to Beatrizet is generally accepted.

The top of the great marble platform on which the figures are placed is carved with rippling water, which cascades over the front edge; Beatrizet extended the water image to make it seem as if it fills the whole foreground. He also accommodated the charming scenes of the life of the rivers, carved on three sides of the marble platform, representing them as a frieze in margins at the top and down the two sides. Beatrizet's imaginative solutions to the representation of antique sculpture enabled him to combine accuracy with an attractive visual effect.

The work belongs to the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the earliest iconography of ancient Rome. 

The Speculum originated in the publishing activities of Antonio Salamanca and Antonio Lafreri (Lafrery). During their Roman publishing careers, the two editors-who worked together between 1553 and 1563-started the production of prints of architecture, statuary, and city views related to ancient and modern Rome. The prints could be purchased individually by tourists and collectors, but they were also purchased in larger groups that were often bound together in an album. In 1573, Lafreri commissioned a frontispiece for this purpose, where the title Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae appears for the first time. Upon Lafreri's death, two-thirds of the existing copperplates went to the Duchetti family (Claudio and Stefano), while another third was distributed among several publishers. Claudio Duchetti continued the publishing activity, implementing the Speculum plates with copies of those "lost" in the hereditary division, which he had engraved by the Milanese Amborgio Brambilla. Upon Claudio's death (1585) the plates were sold - after a brief period of publication by the heirs, particularly in the figure of Giacomo Gherardi - to Giovanni Orlandi, who in 1614 sold his printing house to the Flemish publisher Hendrick van Schoel. Stefano Duchetti, on the other hand, sold his own plates to the publisher Paolo Graziani, who partnered with Pietro de Nobili; the stock flowed into the De Rossi typography passing through the hands of publishers such as Marcello Clodio, Claudio Arbotti and Giovan Battista de Cavalleris. The remaining third of plates in the Lafreri division was divided and split among different publishers, some of them French: curious to see how some plates were reprinted in Paris by Francois Jollain in the mid-17th century. Different way had some plates printed by Antonio Salamanca in his early period; through his son Francesco, they goes to Nicolas van Aelst's. Other editors who contributed to the Speculum were the brothers Michele and Francesco Tramezzino (authors of numerous plates that flowed in part to the Lafreri printing house), Tommaso Barlacchi, and Mario Cartaro, who was the executor of Lafreri's will, and printed some derivative plates. All the best engravers of the time - such as Nicola Beatrizet (Beatricetto), Enea Vico, Etienne Duperac, Ambrogio Brambilla, and others  - were called to Rome and employed for the intaglio of the works.

All these publishers-engravers and merchants-the proliferation of intaglio workshops and artisans helped to create the myth of the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the oldest and most important iconography of Rome. The first scholar to attempt to systematically analyze the print production of 16th-century Roman printers was Christian Hülsen, with his Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri of 1921. In more recent times, very important have been the studies of Peter Parshall (2006) Alessia Alberti (2010), Birte Rubach and Clemente Marigliani (2016).