Marforius

Engraving, 1550, signed and dated lower left ANT LAFRERI SEQVANI EXCVDEBAT ROMAE ∞ DL.

The work, a replica of the engraving attributed to Nicolas Beatrizet for Antonio Salamanca, is dubiously assigned to the same artist by Silvia Bianchi.

Example in the first state of two, before Pietro de Nobili's address.

Magnificent proof, richly toned imprinted on contemporary laid paper with "crossbow in the circle" watermark (cf. Woodward nos. 203-213), trimmed to copperplate and with contemporary margins added, traces of central crease and small restored tear in center, otherwise in excellent condition.

Inscribed upper left: Quest'è di Roma un nobil cittadino Il qual (ne alcun si pensi ch'io l'inganni) Naqque con questa barba e in questi panni E fu si grande in sin ch'era piccino Non mangiò mai ne beuue: And is near To perhaps more than a thousand and two hundred years And no less the discomforts and the afflictions All of the world esteems not a penny Always, and it may be said naked, to the water, to the sun To the wind, and on earth he stood without a roof, Nor a tooth even, not that anything else ever grieves him. Of nature quiet, graue, ischietto Candido; Of very few words, et a molte faccende atto e perfetto Anchor that out of spite already lo crippin certi traditori as you see, et ha nome. MARFVORI.

Inscribed in the first cartouche on the lower left QVATTVOR HAS STATVARVM BASES CVM SVIS INSCRIPTIONIBVS ANNO ∞ D XLVII VNA CVM ALIIS NONNVLLIS AD ARCVM SEPT[IMII] SEVERI NON PROCVL AB HAC MARFORII STATVA ERVTAS NON ABSVRDE HIC SVBIVNGI POSSE PVTAVIMVS [We felt it was not out of place to add these four statue bases with their inscriptions, found in the year 1547 with a few others near the arch of Septimius Severus, not far from this statue of Marforius].

“The colossal statue of Marforus was kept in the Middle Ages near the Arch of Septimius Severus, as can be seen from the inscriptions on the four bases depicted below. The relocation took place on January 4, 1588, when the Roman Senate paid two masons to move it to St. Mark's Square. After ups and downs and afterthoughts, the statue went to decorate the embankment of the Capitoline Square towards the Aracoeli and finally, in 1734 it was moved to the courtyard of the Capitoline Museums. The statue of Marforio in Roman tradition became part of the talking statues along with Pasquino, Abbot Luigi, the Babuino and the Facchino [...] Numerous interpretations flourished on the statue of Marforio during the sixteenth century: two were collected by Andrea Palladio in one of his trips to Rome (1541): Quella statua che è a piedi del Campidoglio hoggi detto Marforio, credesi che fosse di Giove Panario, fatto in memoria di quei pani, che gittorno le guardie del Campidoglio nel campo de Galli, quando lo tenevano assediato. Altri vogliono che sia il simulacro del fiume Reno, sopra la testa del quale già teneva un piede il cavallo di Domitiano Imperatore fatto di bronzo. The discussions, the curiosities that revolved around the statue fostered numerous printed editions, including replicas by Camocio, Duchetti and Van Aelst” (translation from C. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento).

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). 

Bibliografia

C. Hülsen, Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri (1921), n. 70/A; cfr. Peter Parshall, Antonio Lafreri's 'Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, in “Print Quarterly”, 1 (2006); B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 336, I/II; A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. 83, I/II; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. V.57; cfr, D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996); S. Bianchi, Catalogo dell’opera incisa di Nicolas Beatrizet, p. 7, n. D.21/A.