Antonine column and obelisk of the Mausoleum of Augustus

Engraving, ca. 1550, signed lower left: A.S. excudebat.

Work attributed by Bartsch and Le Blanc to Enea Vico, an assignment now recognized by many scholars.

Example in the first state of two, with Salamanca imprint, forward of the address of Giovanni Orlandi, who added the inscription LA COLONNA ANTONINA at the top.

Magnificent proof, richly toned, impressed on contemporary laid virgin paper with "anchor in the circle" watermark (very difficult to read but would appear to be the one described by Woodward, no. 157), trimmed to copperplate, traces of horizontal center fold restoration visible on verso, otherwise in excellent condition.

Inscription on the base of the Column: "COL. ANTONINI".

“The landscape in the background is a collage of Roman buildings (Castel Sant'Angelo, the walls, bridges over the Tiber, the Tiber Island, churches, San Pietro in Montorio...) and, in the front, the she-wolf and the personification of the Tiber. The obelisk is moved forward so that the column appears to surpass it in height. The column, in the manner of the Trajan column, depicts the wars of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and again, the relief illustrations begin with the passage over a bridge thrown across the Danube. Compared to the former, the figures are fewer and more scattered so that they allow for greater legibility. In the obelisk flanking the column some have believed to identify the Vatican obelisk but, most likely, it is that of the Mausoleum of Augustus. The column of Marcus Aurelius appears in the drawing with serious shortcomings: Fontana reports that "far greater difficulty was in the Antonine column which, partly because of its antiquity, and partly because it had been abraded by Barbarians, was reduced to such an end, that it seemed impossible, not that difficult to restore it, because in many places it stood open and cracked, and in many places there were missing very large pieces of marble, to such an extent that it frightened those who admired it. Therefore it was necessary to make a castle around it up to the top, and to add many marbles where they were missing, and to carve figures on it with great diligence, so that with great art, and expense it is almost reduced to its former state, and made the ornament of the pedestal all of new kind marble, because the old one was all broken and worn". Salamanca's engraving was edited again by Paolo Graziani (1582), by Pietro De Nobili (1585), and by Giovanni Orlandi in 1602 with the large inscription at the top of the engraving La Colonna Antoniana” (translation from C. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento).

Although Marigliani argues that the plate was reprinted by Paolo Graziani and Pietro de Nobili, there is no evidence for this; it would imply the fact that the Salamanca matrix, through Lafreri, was inherited by Stefano Duchetti, who ceded his share of the printing press to Graziani. It does not appear to us that the copperplate is among those described in the purchase and sale documented by Valeria Pagani (see The Dispesal of Lafreri's Inheritance 1581-89, in "Print Quarterly," vols. 25 & 28 and Inventari di rami Lafreri-Duchet 1598-99. In Leuschner, "Ein privilegertes Medium," pp. 63-85, Rome 2012). However, although we indicate the existence of only two states of the plate, additional editionss of the plate are possible, both prior to Orlandi's edition and later, by Hendrick van Schoel, to whom Orlandi sold the stock in 1614. 

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. 31/a; cfr. B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 289; cfr. A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. 56; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. IV.18; cfr. D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996); Le Blanc C., Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes, n. 424; The Illustrated Bartsch, n. 418.