The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli in Rome

Engraving , inscribed and dated on the foot of the table: Inscribed and dated on the foot of the table: 'ACADEMIA DI BAC/CHIO BRANDIN IN/ROMA/IN LVOGO DETTO/BELVEDERE/MDXXXI' XXXI.

A good impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the paltemark, very good condition.

Anonimous copy after an engraving by Agostino de Musi. Subject by Baccio Bandinelli.

According to the inscription, this dramatic interior night scene depicts young art students at the Belvedere art academy in Rome. The school was run by the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, famous for his drawings of the human figure. Bandinelli is shown seated at tabled, elegantly dressed in a coat with a thick fur collar, and holding in his hands the statuette of a female nude. He is surrounded by apprentices who are drawing from this model, and also from a statuette of a male nude standing on the table, by the light of a centrally placed lamp. The quiet absorption of the young men in their work, and the nocturnal setting for these activities, suggests an atmosphere quite different from acraftsman’s workshop.

According to Thomas (see Print Quarterly, March 2005, XXII, pp. 3-14) the inscription added in the second state of Veneziano’ print, here copied, is not an “invenit” but the identification of a group portrait, to securely identify the subject and to prevent possible misreading of the image.
For the name Brandin, rathen than Bandinelli, on the inscrption, see Thomas.

The Enea Vico’s version of this subject, is a clarification and an amplification of the Veneziano academy print, rather than a repetition, since it demostrates the artist’s noble status through an inscription and coat of arms, and his elevated artistic status through a multiplication of the elements of the previous design: five books instead of one, three light sorces ecc.