OPVS PRAXITELIS - OPVS FIDIAE

Engraving, 1546, signed and dated lower right: ROMAE ∞ D XLVI / ANT LAFRERI SEQVANI FORMIS.

Inscribed at lower right: "HEVS TV QVI PRAETERIS MORARE PAVLVM AC INSPICE - IN QVIRINALI HI SVNT EQVI MARMOREI MVTILI ATQ[VE] GRANDES - ARTE VICTA NATVRA PARENS SPIRITVM CVR ERIPIT - QVID PRAXITELES ET FIDIAS EFFINXERE ISTOS AEMVLAMVR - SAT DIXI ABEL VALE SALVE MISCE BIBE DA MI" [Hey! you passing by. Stop a little and look. At the Quirinal there are these marble horses, mutilated, large. - Won by art, why does mother nature rapture the spirit? What Praxiteles and Phidias sculpted, we emulate. I have said enough, Abel: hail, hail, mix, drink, and offer it [also] to me].

Inscribed on the pedestals of the dioscuri: OPVS PRAXITELIS - OPVS FIDIAE.

Example in the first state of three for Rubach, second of four for Alberti describing a proof before Lafreri's signature preserved in the Marucelliana collection in Florence.

Magnificent proof, richly toned impressed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "Deer in a shield with cross" (cf. Woodward nos. 51-52), trimmed to copperplate and with coeval margins added, in excellent condition.

“The engraving shows the poor state of conservation in which the two giants were before the restoration commissioned by Sixtus V (1585-1590). The obelisk is missing, recovered from the Mausoleum of Augustus, which was inserted between the two marble groups in 1786 by Carlo Antinori, at the behest of Pius VI (1775-1799). The name of Dioscuri is due to Perrier who in his work on the most admired statues of Rome reported the discordant interpretations of the two giants: according to some it was Alexander and Bucephalus in double replica (as the engravers of these sixteenth-century prints believe), according to others of Castor and Pollux and, finally, of the Dioscuri (see cards cat. V.36, V.37). The name of Monte Cavallo given to the Quirinale hill derives from the two great horses of the sculpture group. The statues are Roman copies of 2nd-3rd century Greek originals from the 5th century B.C. believed for a long time to be copies of works by famous artists so that on the base is written "Opus Fidiae" and "Opus Praxitelis" and represent the Dioscuri, the mythological knights sons of Jupiter who saved the Roman army at Regillo Lake. Since the Middle Ages all visitors to Rome have been able to admire them in the same place where they are still today and because of their presence the Quirinal was called Montecavallo. The position where they are today is the one designed by Flaminio Vacca for Sixtus V, supplemented by the modifications made in 1783 by Carlo Antinori for Pius VI. Pope Sixtus V wanted to create a suitable exhibition for the final castle of the Acqua Virgo and thought to use the two gigantic statues that were already on the square and were placed in front of Palazzo Vercelli or the Consulta; he wanted to turn the statues so that they would visually close the scenery of the Strada Pia - today Via XX Settembre - and entrusted the task to Domenico Fontana who set the statues back and put them in front of the Quirinale Palace and placed a fountain in front of it. The last movement of the statues was commissioned by Pope Pius VI who had the obelisk that was in the Mausoleum of Augustus raised between the two marble groups; the two groups were separated to make room for the obelisk and in front of it was placed a basin of granite that came from Campo Vaccino to collect the water that fell from the gush of Acqua Virgo” (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), p. 153, n. 53/a; cfr. Peter Parshall, Antonio Lafreri's 'Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, in “Print Quarterly”, 1 (2006); B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 317, I/III; A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. 71, II/IV; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. V.35; cfr, D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996).