Exterior orthographia frontis Farnesianae domus…

Engraving, 1549, by Nicolas Beatrizet (Lunéville, 1515 ca. - Rome, 1565 ca.) for the publisher Antonio Lafréry (Orgelet, 1512 - Rome, 1577). Example of the first state of four.

The print illustrates Michelangelo's project for the facade of Palazzo Farnese. Work belonging to the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae of Lafreri.

In the year in which the print was engraved by Beatrizet the third floor of the palace had already been raised and the cornice had to be almost completed. Just the design of the cornice wanted by Paul III (1534-1549), who announced a special competition won by Michelangelo, was the occasion for Buonarroti to take over the construction of Palazzo Farnese from Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane (died September 19, 1546). In the dedication above, Beatrizet praises Pope Paul III for following Vitruvian norms in the construction of the palace. However Frommel points out that the engraver: "is wrong in the projections of the entablature under the coat of arms and does not correspond even in the partial perspective of the windows with the manner of Michelangelo". The flatness of the Palazzo's sangallesque facade was enlivened by the insertion of the central window of the piano nobile, surmounted by the Farnese coat of arms.

Inscribed at top center: “Exterior orthographia frontis Farnesianæ domus: quam Romæ et magnis impensis et seruatis architecturæ præceptis PAVLUS Tertius Pontifex maximus, a fundamentis / memoriæ caußa sibi Posterisque suis erexit” [Exterior elevation of Palazzo Farnese that, with great expense and according to the precepts of architecture, Pontiff Maximus Paul III had built from the foundations, in future memory of himself and his posterity].

Inscribed at bottom center: “Misura, Palmorum - XL- [Measure of 40 palms] with scale of measurement.  Signed at lower left next to the building elevation: "NB.F" [Nicola Beatrizet Fece]. Signed and dated lower right: "Antonij Lafrerij Sequani formis ∞DXLiiiI".

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). 

Beautiful proof, printed on contempory laid paper "shield above a wolf in a circle surmounted by a star" (Woodward 221-222), trimmed to copper and with original margins added, in excellent condition.

Bibliografia

B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), no. 375, I/IV; A. Alberti, The Index of Antonio Lafrery (2010), no. 100, I/IV; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), no. VI.19; C. HÜLSEN, 1921, p. 162, 102, A; G. C. ARGAN, 1990, p. 268; J. GARMS, 1995, II, p. 350; M. BURY, 2001, p. 141; W. LOTZ, 2004, pp. 59-60; C. MARIGLIANI, 2005, p. 44; C. WITCOMBE, 2008, pp. 141, 144; C. L. FROMMEL, 2010, p. 331.