Grotesque Winding Column in St. Peter's

Twisted column, St. Peter's in the Vatican.

Engraving, 1550 approx., signed on plate at the bottom center (from the second state): “Ant. Lafrerij Romae”.

Example of the second state of three, with the address of Lafreri. A proof state, before the letter, and a later print issue, signed by Giovanni Orlandi in 1602, are known.

The engraving is attributed by Silvia Bianchi to Nicolas Betarizet. It is part of the "Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae", described in the catalog Lafreri at number 202 as: “Colonna santa condotta dal tempio di Salomone insieme con molte altre colonne poste in San Pietro”.

The tortile column is one of the columns vitineae of the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter that was mistakenly believed to come from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. There were twelve columns, and only one has been lost. The other eleven were used by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Vatican basilica: eight were used in the newsstands at the top of the pylons of the cross, two frame the altar of the Chapel of the Sacrament, and the last one is exhibited in the Treasure Museum of the Basilica.

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). 

A good proof, printed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "anchor in a circle", with margins, a small worm hole at the lower right margin, otherwise in excellent state of preservation.

Bibliografia:

B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 286, II/III; A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. 53, II/III; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. III.24; C. Hülsen, 1921, p. 148, 29, a; A. Pinelli, 2000, pp. 20-21; G. Gallina, 2002, pp. 33-34; S. Corsi - P. Ragioneri, 2004, p. 50; Bianchi 2003-III, p. 10, n. 114.