Three chiaroscuro woodcuts

Antonio da Trento's woodcut production is closely related to that of Ugo da Carpi, who presumably instructed him in the chiaroscuro technique. Following Ugo's time in Venice and Rome, where he created colour woodcuts after designs by Titian, Raphael and his circle, and then Parmigianino, he eventually moved to Bologna, capital of his native region Emilia Romagna. There he would work closely with Parmigianino in his Bolognese workshop. It was presumably here that he began working with Antonio da Trento and overseeing the cutting of the four woodcuts Antonio printed in Bologna. Two of these prints, Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl are offered in the present lot. (For another print of this period see previous lot.) The Virgin and Child is an example of ‘competent cutting and controlled printing technique associated with early impressions of the chiaroscuro woodcuts Antonio produced with Parmigianino’ (Takahatake, 2018, p. 105), rendered in a low-contrast, muted palette, achieved by printing a gray line block over a light sand-coloured tone block.
The Hand and Flower watermark found in the present impression has been recorded Takahatake in early impressions of Ugo da Carpi’s Hercules chasing Avarice (version B, B. 12) and the Massacre of the Innocents (B. 8), both dated circa 1520-27.