CASTELLO SANTO ANGELO DI ROMA

Engraving, 1540-50 circa, at lower center, in image: A.S. Excudebat

Excellent example, printed on contemporary laid paper with “lozenge with six-pointed star in a circle” (cfr. Woodward 288-294), trimmed to the platemark, in good condition.

The Castel Sant'Angelo and Ponte Sant'Angelo showing the statues of SS. Peter and Paul at the entrance to the bridge, which were commissioned in 1535, and Salamanca died in 1563, so this anonymous engraving was realized after 1535 and before 1563.

On the banks of the Tiber below the bridge, in the foreground, a soldier in ancient dress rides a rearing horse, while beside him we see contemporary (16th century) riders, Swiss guards leaning on their halberds, and a crowd gathered around a charlatan holding a snake and lecturing in front of a large banner.

“Il foglio documenta la situazione di Castel Sant’Angelo e del ponte che la collegava con l’altra sponda del Tevere al tempo di papa Paolo III Farnese (1534-1549). Sul frontale si vede «Porta Collina sistemata sotto il pontificato di Alessandro VI Borgia (1492-1503) il cui stemma è presente nel coronamento della porta stessa. Questa verrà demolita nella parte superiore nel 1566 e sotto il pontificato di Urbano VIII (1623-1644) verrà eliminata completamente, insieme al torrione di Alessandro VI […] Ferma restando la probabile paternità del disegno da attribuire a Enea Vico, la prima tiratura di questa stampa è controversa: il Vico potrebbe avere inciso una prima lastra con la scritta in basso Castello Santo Angelo di Roma per i tipi di Tommaso Barlacchi (attivo a Roma tra il 1540 e il 1550), ma non è escluso che invece la prima tiratura sia dovuta proprio al Salamanca (l’esemplare qui illustrato) attivo a Roma già a partire dal 1517. Esiste anche un’edizione stampata in controparte segnalata dalla Catelli Isola. Poiché sul pennone del castello sventola lo stemma di papa Paolo III (1534-1549) e considerando che il Vico giunse a Roma nel 1541 per lavorare presso le botteghe di Barlacchi e Salamanca, si può collocare la data dell’incisione tra il 1542 e il 1549. La stampa documenta l’assetto di Castel Sant’Angelo durante il pontificato Farnese: l’incisore pone il punto di vista da Borgo, da cui sono documentati la porta Collina e il torrione cilindrico in asse con il ponte. A sinistra è ritratto il bastione di San Marco con l’inizio del corridoio del Passetto attraverso il quale una processione di prelati lascia il castello per dirigersi a San Pietro” (cfr. 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).

Collection mark of Jean-Mathieu Bec  (Lugt 1421).

Bibliografia

C. Hülsen, Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri (1921), n. 148/a; Peter Parshall, Antonio Lafreri's 'Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, in “Print Quarterly”, 1 (2006); B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 260, I/II; A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. 36, stato unico; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. VII.2; cfr. D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996).