.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
There is documentary evidence that this plate was left unfinished by Milan and completed by Boyvin (see Old Master Prints from Chatsworth, Christie's, London, 5 December 1985, lot 102).
The plate bears the inscription 'Iulius Romanus Inventor:-', but the authorship of the composition is not without ambiguities. The engraving is based on a fresco originally in the villa of Baldassare Turini (Villa Lante) on Monte Gianicolo in Rome and later transferred to Palazzo Zucchari, which has alternatively been attributed to Polidoro da Caravaggio, Maturino da Firenze and Giulio Romano. In fact, a chiaroscuro woodcut by Niccolò Vicentino (Bartsch. 96.5) of the same subject and closely related composition is inscribed MATURIN/ INVENT. A previously anonymous etching of the same subject, now attributed by Jenkins to the Master of the Black Eye, gives no indication of the authorship of the design. (For a further discussion of the etching and this composition see C. Jenkins, Prints at the Court of Fontainebleau c. 1542-47, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, 2017, no. MBE 7, p. 178-9.).
We are greatful to Catherine Jenkins, London, for her help in cataloguing this lot.
The plate bears the inscription 'Iulius Romanus Inventor:-', but the authorship of the composition is not without ambiguities. The engraving is based on a fresco originally in the villa of Baldassare Turini (Villa Lante) on Monte Gianicolo in Rome and later transferred to Palazzo Zucchari, which has alternatively been attributed to Polidoro da Caravaggio, Maturino da Firenze and Giulio Romano. In fact, a chiaroscuro woodcut by Niccolò Vicentino (Bartsch. 96.5) of the same subject and closely related composition is inscribed MATURIN/ INVENT. A previously anonymous etching of the same subject, now attributed by Jenkins to the Master of the Black Eye, gives no indication of the authorship of the design. (For a further discussion of the etching and this composition see C. Jenkins, Prints at the Court of Fontainebleau c. 1542-47, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, 2017, no. MBE 7, p. 178-9.).
We are greatful to Catherine Jenkins, London, for her help in cataloguing this lot.