Incoronazione della Vergine

Assumption or Coronation of the Virgin, engraving, ca. 1800 after Maso Finiguerra.

A "modern" copy of Maso Finiguerra's composition, of which two sulfur prints (one preserved in Paris, Musée du Louvre, E. de Rothschild collection; one in London, British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings) and the BnF print proof on paper are known, in addition to the plate preserved in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello (inv. 33 OR).

This print was made following a discovery by Abbot Pietro Zani at the Cabinet des estampes in Paris: in 1797 the scholar discovered among the materials from the collection of Abbot Michel de Marolles a proof on paper from the peace niellata with the Coronation of the Virgin, made for the baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, attributed to Maso Finiguerra and preserved today in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. From that impression on paper was etched a faithful copy, on the same verso, by L. Pauquet, which was also published in Zani's Materials of 1802, and copied by J. Gerstner to illustrate the frontispiece of the edition of the 13th volume of A. Bartsch's Peintre graveur published in 1811.

Maso Finiguerra (Florence, 1426 - Florence, August 23, 1464) was an Italian engraver and goldsmith, specializing in the art of niello. He worked with Lorenzo Ghiberti on the doors of the Baptistery of Florence. According to Giorgio Vasari he is the inventor of engraving with a burin on metal, which is the origin of intaglio printing.

Beautiful proof, printed on 19th-century laid paper, paper slightly browned, in very good condition.

Bibliografia

Arthur M. Hind, Early Italian engraving, a critical catalogue with complete reproduction of all the prints described. Part I, Florentine engravings and anonymous prints of other schools, 1938, 151; Gisèle Lambert, Les premières gravures italiennes: Quattrocento-début du Cinquecento: inventaire de la collection du département des estampes et de la photographie, Bibliothèque nationale de France, cop. 1999, n° 1.