Allegory of Music & Allegory of Painting

Pair of allegorical engravings signed by Joseph Wagner, taken from two famous paintings by Jacopo Amigoni, printed in Venice by Wagner himself around 1739/40.

(a) Allegory of Music.

Etching and engraving, signed in plate at lower right. Inscriptions: " De’ bambini il vagir addita e insegna / Ch’il dolce suon de musicali accenti / Né più teneri cuor s’imprime, e regna.”, “Amiconi Pinx.”, “Wagner Sculp.”, “N°67.1”, “Appresso J. Wagner in Merz. Venetia C.P.E.S.”.

(b) Allegory of Painting.

Etching and engraving, signed in plate at lower right. Inscriptions: “Lunga è l’Arte, e la Vita al Fin s’affretta. / Chi non comincia da suoi tener’anni / Che a buon termin mai giunga, in van s’aspetta.”, “Amigoni Pinx.”, “Wagner Sculp.”, “N°67.2”, “Appresso J. Wagner in Merz. Venetia C.P.E.S.”

In 1739, George Vertue (1684-1756) wrote in his Note books, "Joseph Wagner engrever [...] lately he has engraved two plates a sheet each representing several Boyes - very freely and well done masterly" (Vertue ed. 1951-52). The English polygraph was referring to two prints taken from paintings by Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752), depicting the allegories of Music and Painting, which would thus have been executed during Wagner's stay in London, but are known to us only in the later printed states in Venice. The plates are a perfect manifesto of that "enfance répendue partout," a characteristic feature of Rococo aesthetics. In the first the protagonists are five cherubs intent on singing and playing music, while in the second we see a novice Apelle who, surrounded by assistants, portrays Campaspe reclining a pillow. The details of the cat perched on the furniture staring at the viewer from the half-light and the child carefully arranging the model's hairstyle are splendid. The Venetian's paintings were auctioned in London in 1979 (Christie's 4.51979, lot 18): the Music is now in a private collection in Reggio Emilia, while the Painting is part of the Earl of Wemyss's collection at Gosford House (Manfredi 2004). Another version of the latter, which has some compositional differences, however, was part of the Bologna collection of the singer Farinelli (1705-1782), a close friend of Amigoni (Scarpa Sonino 1994). Wagner succeeds, by using a wide range of marks and modulating the morsure, in recreating the velvety tones typical of the Venetian's painting and proves adept at rendering the soft chiaroscuro that characterizes the prototypes. It is certain that at some point these sheets were printed Venice along with two other engravings depicting the Holy Shroud with four little angels and the sleeping infant Jesus, comparable to these in the presence of children as subjects, but very different in subject matter. Two states are known of the engravings, the first having the serial numbers "e.1" and "e.2 ", with which they are found catalogued together with the two above-mentioned engravings, under the title "Puttini di Amiconi," in the sales catalog printed before 1760 (Griffiths 1993), and the second that presents instead the serial numbers characterized by "67" with which we find them inventoried, again with the other two prints, in the second Cattalogo delle Stampe, published after 1768 (cf. Chiara Lo Giudice, Joseph Wagner engraver and entrepreneur in eighteenth-century Europe, pp. 253-255).

The prints are absolutely rare; as reported in Lo Giudice's thesis describing known examples in collections: Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, inv. JWagner AB 3.55-3.56; London, Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. 26756 and 24961.2; Venice, Museo Correr, inv. Correr 11 no. 4417 and 5 no. 1512.

Magnificent proofs, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins, slight central paper crease in art allegory, sanguine pencil the verso tracing the engravings, otherwise in very good condition.

Bibliografia

Chiara Lo Giudice, Joseph Wagner incisore e imprenditore nell’Europa del Settecento, pp. 253-255, n. 25; Le Blanc 1890, IV, p. 169; Vertue, ed. 1951-52, VI, p. 195; Scarpa Sonino 1994, pp. 144-147; Marini 2003, p. 104; Manfredi 2004, pp. 179-185; Scarpa Sonino, in La collezione Terruzzi… 2007, pp. 424-425.