The Blessed Philip Benizzi, surrounded by twelve scenes from his life

The Blessed Philip Benizzi, surrounded by twelve scenes from his life

Engraving, 1470 circa, without printing details. An early anonymous Florentine engraving in the style of Baccio Baldini.

A very good impression, on contemporary laid paper with  "three mountains with cross" watermark (similar to Briquet nos. 11924 - 11926, which describes it as a paper produced in Reggio Emilia in the first half of the 15th century), trimmed to the platemark, in good condition.

According with Mark Zucker (Anonymus Florentine Engravers, in “The Illustrated Bartsch”) there are only three impressions known, London, British Museum, Berlin, Kupferstichekabinet e New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. All of them are taken from a worn plate.

For a description of the work, we refer to Zucker's accurate description: “On a shield at the upper center, crowned and supported by a pair of sea monsters: the emblem of the Servite Order, consisting of the letter S intertwined with an M composed of a horseshoe-shaped curve with a stem of lilies as its central vertical member; on a scroll at the lower center: BEATVS•PHILIPVS•DE FLORE/NTIA•ORDINIS•SERVOR[VM] ("Blessed Philip of Florence of the Order of Servants"); on the pages of the open book: SER[V]/VS T/VVS/ SVM/ EGO/ F/ ILL//VS [ANCILLAE TUAE] ("I am thy servant, and the son [of thine handmaiden]"; Psalm 116: 16); below the first (uppermost) box at the left, with a scene of the Virgin and Child appearing to Philip, telling him to join the Order of the Servites and handing him his mantle: [C]O[ME] NOSTRA DON[N]A ("How Our Lady..."); below the second box at the left, with a scene of Philip exorcizing a demon from a possessed woman: COMO FU LIBERAT[A] ("How she was liberated"); below the third box at the left, with a scene of Philip healing an invalid: CO[ME] LIBERO LO INFER[MO] ("How he liberated the sick man"); below the fourth box at the left, with a scene of an angel appearing to Philip and two other members of his order at dinner: CO[ME] LANGELO PORTO ("How the angel brought..."); below the fifth box at the left, with a scene of Philip in-structing a group of nuns: [C]O[MEJ FA DIS[C]PLINA ("How he makes discipline") [the sixth (lowermost) box at the left, with a scene of Philip flagellating himself in front of a cave, lacks an inscription]; below the first (uppermost) box at the right, with a scene of Philip saving the city of Todi from fire: CO[ME] LIBERO TODI ("How he liberated Todi"); below the second box at the right, with a scene of Philip rescuing a ship at sea from demons: CO[MEJ LIBERO LA NA V[E] ("How he liberated the ship"); below the third box at the right, with a scene of Philip preaching to a prostitute (?): CO[ME] LIBERO LO INFICA ("How he liberated the prostitute [?]"); below the fourth box at the right, with a scene of Philip saving a youth about to be hanged: CO[ME] LIBERO DA M[O]RT[E] ("How he liberated from death") [the fifth box at the right, with a scene of Philip rescuing a youth from torture, lacks an inscription]; above the sixth (lowermost) box at the right, with a scene of Philip saving a woman from being beaten: CO[ME] LIBERO LA DON[NA] ("How he liberated the woman").

All known impressions of the engraving are modern ones that show the marks of nail or rivet holes in the corners and were pulled after the plate had been damaged, reworked, and considerably worn. To such an extent has the liner linework worn away that Philip's garments appear almost white, although the habit of his order is black. In its original state, the print conveyed this through a system of dense crosshatching of the kind seen, for example, on the mantle of St. Catherine in the preceding item (TIB.042). In view of its poor condition, technical analysis of the engraving is difficult. Clearly, it never had much individual character, but it still bears all the hallmarks of the early Florentine manner and betrays the hand of an artisan working tinder the influence of Baccio Baldini, perhaps in the decade of the 1470s. For several contemporary Florentine engravings with the same format - a saint surrounded or flanked by boxes containing small-scale scenes from his life or legend - see TIB.023 and TIB 2403.130-.132.

The subject of the image also proclaims its origin in Florence. Filippo Benizzi (1233-1285) vas the most celebrated early member of the only native Florentine order, the Servites or Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since is cult was not approved until 1516 and he was only canonized in 1671, the scroll at the bottom of the sheet gives Philip's title as Beatus (rather than Sanctus), and he is shown with a rayed nimbus signifying his beatitude (instead of a circular halo denoting sainthood). Philip was venerated and frequently depicted from the fourteenth century onward, especially in Florence where he was born, and in Todi where he died and performed posthumous miracles (such as saving the city from fire, as seen in the box at the upper right-hand corner of the print).

Here he appears in the customary fashion - wearing the habit of his order, treading on a demon, holding a branch of lilies, and displaying a book inscribed, as it is in numerous other representations (see Zucker 1993, p. 381, n. 48), with a passage from Psalm 116. Above him, Christ and a pair of angels hold three aureola crowns - the maximum number possible - to indicate Philip's status as virgin, doctor, and (in honor of his devotion to the crucifix?), martyr; his virginity and doctorship are also symbolized by his lilies and his book. Flanking the central image, an unusually large cycle of twelve scenes portrays Philip doing the very things that eventually resulted in his canonization. In short, the engraving amounts to an elaborate piece of visual propaganda for a favorite Servite son, and the engraver literally included the order's seal of approval in the form of the Servite emblem at the top of the page. All of this suggests that the print was conceived and commissioned by the order it-self, to be used as a devotional image by its members and sold to lay worshippers at its churches” (cf. Mark J. Zucker, Early Italian Masters – Anonymus Florentine Engravers, in “The Illustrated Bartsch”, 24, II, pp. 187-189, n. 043).

A beautiful example of this extraordinarily rare engraving.

Bibliografia

Hind 1938-48 / Early Italian Engraving, a critical catalogue (A.I.71); Mark J. Zucker, Early Italian Masters – Anonymus Florentine Engravers, in “The Illustrated Bartsch”, 24, II, pp. 187-189, n. 043.