Lot Essay
In his early career Rosso Fiorentino was attracted to the concept of disseminating his art through the medium of engraving. His first collaboration with an engraver dates to 1517-18 when his visionary drawing of An Allegory of Death and Fame (or The Skeletons) was engraved by Agostino Veneziano (B. XIV, 424; see Old Master Prints from Chatsworth, Christie's, 5 December 1985, lot 71, repr.). On his move to Rome in 1524 Rosso began working with Jacopo Caraglio and in the next three years some 31 engravings were made from Rosso's disegni di stampe, including the remarkable Fury (B. XV, 58; see Chatsworth sale, op. cit., lot 77, repr.) and the series of Gods in Niches (B. XV, 24-43). The two surviving drawings for this last-mentioned series show just how close was the working association between artist and engraver.
The Albertina drawing of The Annunciation has been dated to 1531-2 shortly after the artist's arrival in France where he was to stay until his suicide in 1540 (Eugene A. Carroll, Rosso Fiorentino Drawings, Prints, and Decorative Arts, Washington, 1987-8, pp. 182-5, no. 60, repr.). No documentary evidence exists to suggest that the drawing can be termed a disegno di stampa similar to those produced in Rome between 1524-7. The stylus marks on the drawing may have occurred when the near contemporary drawn copy (now in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts) was made or indeed when the engraving was executed, perhaps at a later date and without a close collaboration between artist and engraver. In any event the closeness with which the print follows the Albertina drawing suggests that the engraver worked directly from the original.
The precise date of the print is uncertain. Although the date of publication of Vasari's expanded second edition of Le Vite de' piu eccellenti pittori, scultori, et architettori in 1568, in which Nunziata bizarra is described and which may be the work under discussion, provides a terminus ante quem for the work, the possibility remains that the engraving may have been executed in the late 1530's while Rosso was still alive.
A precise attribution for the work remains as elusive as its date. Vasari's attribution to Boyvin was followed by Robert-Dumesnil in his 1850 catalogue, where the inscription Kkk Gabriel Fesis ex. (barely discernible on the chandelier) was described but not explained and the monogram lower left ascribed to the editor of the print. Levron, 1941, suggested the print belonged to Boyvin's workshop and postulated a date to the mid-1560's. Alternative attributions, as shown by the catalogue references above, have been given. Bruillot, 1832, suggested Gaspare Osello; Nagler, 1858-1879, Gaspare Osello, Gabriel Fesis, or Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau; and the Uffizi ascribes its impression of the print to Antoine or Augustin Garnier. Eugene Carroll, op. cit., casts strong doubt on all these attributions except that to Gabriel Fesis who was, according to Nagler, an artist active in Paris in the 16th Century. The monogram and the engraving may be that of Gabriel Fesis. Whatever the attribution the engraving is a remarkably faithful and successful representation of Rosso's original design, as skilled and as competent as those engravings described above executed by known engravers in Italy at an earlier date.
The Albertina drawing of The Annunciation has been dated to 1531-2 shortly after the artist's arrival in France where he was to stay until his suicide in 1540 (Eugene A. Carroll, Rosso Fiorentino Drawings, Prints, and Decorative Arts, Washington, 1987-8, pp. 182-5, no. 60, repr.). No documentary evidence exists to suggest that the drawing can be termed a disegno di stampa similar to those produced in Rome between 1524-7. The stylus marks on the drawing may have occurred when the near contemporary drawn copy (now in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts) was made or indeed when the engraving was executed, perhaps at a later date and without a close collaboration between artist and engraver. In any event the closeness with which the print follows the Albertina drawing suggests that the engraver worked directly from the original.
The precise date of the print is uncertain. Although the date of publication of Vasari's expanded second edition of Le Vite de' piu eccellenti pittori, scultori, et architettori in 1568, in which Nunziata bizarra is described and which may be the work under discussion, provides a terminus ante quem for the work, the possibility remains that the engraving may have been executed in the late 1530's while Rosso was still alive.
A precise attribution for the work remains as elusive as its date. Vasari's attribution to Boyvin was followed by Robert-Dumesnil in his 1850 catalogue, where the inscription Kkk Gabriel Fesis ex. (barely discernible on the chandelier) was described but not explained and the monogram lower left ascribed to the editor of the print. Levron, 1941, suggested the print belonged to Boyvin's workshop and postulated a date to the mid-1560's. Alternative attributions, as shown by the catalogue references above, have been given. Bruillot, 1832, suggested Gaspare Osello; Nagler, 1858-1879, Gaspare Osello, Gabriel Fesis, or Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau; and the Uffizi ascribes its impression of the print to Antoine or Augustin Garnier. Eugene Carroll, op. cit., casts strong doubt on all these attributions except that to Gabriel Fesis who was, according to Nagler, an artist active in Paris in the 16th Century. The monogram and the engraving may be that of Gabriel Fesis. Whatever the attribution the engraving is a remarkably faithful and successful representation of Rosso's original design, as skilled and as competent as those engravings described above executed by known engravers in Italy at an earlier date.