St. Paul of Thebes tempted by a Demon

Temptations of St. Paul the Hermit. Above two demons in the guise of naked women terminating in the form of snakes, below the saint, seated left with crossed arms and small crucifix in right hand. Bottom inscriptions: PAULUS / Alexander Magnascus in.; BGazalis sculp.

Etching, circa 1720/30. From a drawing by Alexander Magnasco.

Magnificent proof, rich in tone, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins on three sides, trimmed within the copperplate at the bottom, in very good condition. 

Bartolomeo Gazalis, a draughtsman and engraver originally from Genoa, is known to have been in Milan between 1720 and 1730, where he presumably worked for Alessandro Magnaco. Very little is known about Gazalis's biography and artistic activity. He made two etchings from drawings by Magnasco that are extremely rare (this St. Paul and a St. Jerome) and a Pierrot mask. Also attributed to him are a series of etchings of animals that were previously assigned among the dubious works of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.

The present depiction of the hermit Paul of Thebes, tempted by demons in his rocky cave, illustrates the artist's skill as an engraver. The evocative scene has been rendered with an unrestrained and differentiated engraving technique that comes very close to the art of Alessandro Magnasco in the atmospheric and explicitly painterly effect it achieves. St. Paul gazes in silent meditation at the crucifix he holds in his right hand, while two demons rage above him trying in vain to interrupt his contemplation. The bearded old man's muscular, wispy body, which has spent the last sixty years in the wilderness and without any human contact, is convincingly rendered. The whole scene is imbued with deep religious pathos.

The engraving is absolutely rare; in addition to the print preserved at the Civica Raccolta Bertarelli in Milan, already described by Mori, and the one in the Biblioteca Panizzi, from the Davoli collection in Reggio Emilia, we have encountered an example in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Bibliografia

Giovanna Mori, Note su Bartolomeo Gazalis, in “Rassegna di studi e notizie”, Vol XXII, anno XXV, Castello Sforzesco 1998, pp. 325-354, n. 1; Z. Davoli, La Raccolta di Stampe Angelo Davoli, vol. quarto (E-Gq), p. 334, n. 14938; Heller-Andresen 1; cfr. Georg K. Nagler, Die Monogrammisten und diejenigen bekannten und unbekannten Künstler aller Schulen (1858) p. 977, n. 2751.