La festa di Testaccio fatta in Roma

Engraving, 1558, signed and dated with monogram at lower left: - I - T - F[ECIT].

Editorial imprint in lower left margin Romae Vincentij Luchini aeris formis ad Peregrinum . 1558.

Title at top center: - LA - FESTA - DI - TESTACCIO - FATTA - IN - ROMA - . Engraved by Johann Teufel for the publisher Vincenzo Luchino.

Example in the third state (of three?) with the imprint of Luchino and Orlandi that have been abraded. Probably, though lacking editorial imprint, this is a proof printed by Hendrick van Schoel, who bought Giovanni Orlandi's printing house in 1614.

Beautiful proof, rich in tone, printed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "anchor in circle with star" (see Woodward no. 172), with wide margins, in excellent condition.

The plate depicts carnival celebrations in Rome, reintroduced - after a difficult period following the Sack of Rome in 1527 - by Paolo III Farnese (1534-1549); the engraving most likely refers to the carnival of 1545. “At the close of the first session of the Council, when an aura of peace breathed over Europe - in 1545 - as if at once they wished to give vent to enthusiasms for several years suppressed, the Romans organized one of the most splendid carnivals that the sixteenth century recalls” (cf. F. Clementi, Il Carnevale romano nelle cronache contemporanee, 1939).

"Mount Testaccio is an artificial hill 35 meters high, formed by the accumulation of testae (hence the name), that is, fragments and shards of the terracotta amphorae, used for the transport especially of oil and wine that arrived in Rome from the Mediterranean markets. The large flat space in front of the mound was called Prati del Popolo Romano (Roman People's Meadows), and since the Middle Ages it was used as a space for festivals and games. The print reproduces just one of these festivals. From the top of the hill, carts were rolled into the meadows below, with bulls on them, in order to make them furious. Once released, the bulls were chased away by horsemen. The print highlights the participation of the pontiff who shares the popular events with his household; the engraving is entrusted with the task of publicizing the event. The first edition of this very rare print, engraved by Johan Teufel who signs himself with the monogram I.T., was produced for the types of Vincenzo Luchino in 1558” (translation from C. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento).

Teufel's engraving, published by Vincenzo Luchini in 1558, predates by a few years Etienne Duperac's more famous depiction of the feast, which was more widely circulated.

It is described as follows by Michael Bury: “On the bastion in the foreground are the arms of Paul III and the date 1534. The bastion, known as the Colonella, was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in the years 1537-39, as part of the new defences of the Aventine (C. Bellanca, 'Il Bastione della Colonnella, note di storia e conservazione', in G. Spagnese ed. 'Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane, La Vita e l'Opera', Rome, 1986, pp.383-91). The date refers to the reign of the Pope, not to the date of the print. The often-repeated date for the print of 1554 is the result of a misreading of 1534. The papal arms on the flag held by a mounted soldier to the left of centre bear the fleur-de-lis of the Farnese, indicating a date in the reign of Paul III (1534-1549). The Carnival games held at the Testaccio are recorded from 1256 until 1470, when they were moved by order of Paul II to the Corso. In the reign of Paul III there were revivals of the game of the bulls, held on the last Sunday of Carnival. The most famous was that of 1545, which because of bad weather on the Sunday, was held on Monday 16th February. It was attended by 'Madama' and six knights, dressed as ancient roman soldiers, who, mounted on richly caparisoned horses, performed in front of the crowd (F. Cruciani, 'Teatro nel Rinascimento', Roma 1450-1550, Rome, 1983, pp.559-60). Thirteen bulls were released and killed. To encourage danger and confusion, carts were rolled down the hill between the releases of the bulls, each with a live pig, which would become the property of whoever could catch it. The melee of figures in the centre, around one of the carts, must be a scrum attempting to catch a pig. Dupérac's print was almost certainly done many years after the event, using an earlier representation. The basic schema can be seen on ff.40v-41r of the Farnese Hours, illuminated by Giulio Clovio 1540-46 (Giononi-Visani, 1980, p.50). The 1545 games evidently became, in memory, a classic event and there were many representations, for example one by the monogrammist ITF published by Vincenzo Luchino in 1558 (Passavant VI, p.168; IT identified as Johann Teufel in Cruciani, cit.; there is an example in the Escorial, see Gonzalez de Zarate, X, 1996, p.44, no.4772). Vasari mentions a 'Festa del Testaccio' as the work of Hieronymus Cock (Vasari-Milanesi V, p.424)” (cf. Michael Bury, 'The Print in Italy', London 2001, cat.117).

This work is formally part of 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

Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. VI.36; cfr, D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996); Michael Bury, 'The Print in Italy', London 2001, cat.117.