Innalzamento dell’Obelisco Vaticano
| Reference: | S35062 |
| Author | Natale BONIFACIO |
| Year: | 1586 ca. |
| Measures: | 1130 x 502 mm |
€4,500.00
| Reference: | S35062 |
| Author | Natale BONIFACIO |
| Year: | 1586 ca. |
| Measures: | 1130 x 502 mm |
€4,500.00
Description
Etching and engraving, 1586 circa, signed with monogram on plate.
After a drawing of Giovanni Guerra.
Beautiful work, printed on contemporary laid paper, minor paper tears perfectly repaired, otherwise in excellent condition. When St. Peter’s square was reorganized, the newly elected pope Sixtus V commissioned the job to the Swiss architect Domenico Fontana, in 1585.
To decorate the square, an Egyptian obelisk was taken from another square in town. This fact was considered to be extremely in the van for the time and it arose great interest in the public which led to the publication, by Fontana himself, of the famous Della trasportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano et delle fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V, fatte dal caualier Domenico Fontana architetto di Sua Santita, in 1590.
Natale Bonifacio was commissioned the engravings of the book which depicted the works. Though the illustrations of Fontana’s book were published only in 1590, Bonifacio was involved in their preparation. In August 1586 he actually realized two big plates depicting the transportation and the rising of the obelisk, after some drawings of Giovanni Guerra (1540-1618).
These plates were published as independent works, probably as souvenir of the great event and afterwards reissued and included in Johannes Blaeu’s Theatrum Italiae.
Literature
|
Bury, The Print in Italy, pp. 101/104; Reed & Wallace, Italian etchers of the Renaissance & barocque p. 85/88.
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Natale BONIFACIO (Sebenico 1537- ? 1592)
|
Engraver, etcher, designer, printer, print publisher and cosmographer, from Sebenico. Active in Venice c. 1570-74,and then in Rome 1575-91.He was proposed for membership of Virtuosi del Pantheon 9 February 1578, where described as “intagliatore in rame”(Orbaan).1579 he was a member of the Confraternity of San Girolamo degli Illirici.The inscription on his tombstone notes his activity as engraver and cosmographer (“aeris caelator divinus ac optimus geographus”).
In Venice his work was published by Camocio, Ferrando Bertelli, Luca Bertelli and Donato Bertelli, Borgaruccio Borgarucci and Nelli.
In Rome his work was published by Lafrery, Claudio Duchetti, Lorenzo Vaccari, and Nicolas van Aelst. His prints included maps, antiquities, devotional and didactic subjects.Plates for Domenico Fontana’s Della trasportatione dell’obelisco Vaticano 1590.
|
Literature
|
Bury, The Print in Italy, pp. 101/104; Reed & Wallace, Italian etchers of the Renaissance & barocque p. 85/88.
|
Natale BONIFACIO (Sebenico 1537- ? 1592)
|
Engraver, etcher, designer, printer, print publisher and cosmographer, from Sebenico. Active in Venice c. 1570-74,and then in Rome 1575-91.He was proposed for membership of Virtuosi del Pantheon 9 February 1578, where described as “intagliatore in rame”(Orbaan).1579 he was a member of the Confraternity of San Girolamo degli Illirici.The inscription on his tombstone notes his activity as engraver and cosmographer (“aeris caelator divinus ac optimus geographus”).
In Venice his work was published by Camocio, Ferrando Bertelli, Luca Bertelli and Donato Bertelli, Borgaruccio Borgarucci and Nelli.
In Rome his work was published by Lafrery, Claudio Duchetti, Lorenzo Vaccari, and Nicolas van Aelst. His prints included maps, antiquities, devotional and didactic subjects.Plates for Domenico Fontana’s Della trasportatione dell’obelisco Vaticano 1590.
|