Prints and Drawings of Italy: The 16th Century by Georgia Museum of Art

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This catalogue of the Italian 16th-century prints and drawings from the permanent collection of the Georgia Museum of Art was written in conjunction with the exhibition of these works in Prints and Drawings of kaly: The 16th Century, on view at the museum from September 16 November 22,1992. Design by Keith Greenstein Cover Detail: Giulio Romano (after) (1499 - 1546) Triumph of ScipioWI Ink and wash heightened with white on Ercen paryr 16 3/4

x223l4inches

Gift of The Callaway Foundation, LaGrange, Georga GMOA66.1637

Prints and Drawings of ltaly: The 16th Century Works from the Collection of the Georgia Museum of Art

Patricla Phagan Curator of Prints and Drawlngis

Georgla Museum of Art Unfuerstty of Geor$a

z The 16th century in Italy ushered in artistic emphases and

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in prints and drawings of the period. The High

Renaissance (c. 1 500 - c. 1 520), draracterized by idealized approaches

concerns reflected

to sculptural modeling, perspective, proportions, and other issues of the time, emerged most stron$y in the art of Leonardo, Michelangelo,

and Raphael, leading artists of the period. Mannerism, or "stfishness," describes in a general manner the art of the remaining

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century in ltaly, a time marked by a further sophistication and elegance of style which was in itself oftentimes very distinctive, as in

the paintings of Parmiganino and Pontormo.

Generally, Italian artists during this century created paintings, sculptures, tapestries, and other works for particular sites, whether

drurch or palazzo. Prints and drawings largely served in what may be regarded as subsenrient roles, considering the change in thought that

l9th-century Romanticism and its emphasis on the individual has effecled, ovei the past century and a

half. During this earlier period,

the m4iority of prints reproduced or 'interpreted' work in other media

while drawings were generally thought of in terms of preparatory studies, with notable exceptions. These early prints and drawings which relied upon other works are nonetheless significant. In an age

before photography, reproductive prints spread knowledge of Renaissance art outward

to other parts of Europe while drawings

usually expressed the personality and intimate first thoughts of an artist about the making of a fresco or other work.

The earliest engravings in Italy appeared around 1450 with

the introduction of prints pulled from incised silver plaques or their casts. These niello prints, created in the workshops of goldsmiths in Florence and Bologna, wete of omamental and ligurative nature and were at first used as studio models. About 10 years later, engraving

with copper plates and printing presses was introduced to Italy and spread to regional centers, such as Mantua, where Andrea Mantegna

z created some of the most important prints of the 15th century and established a school of artists who executed prints after his paintings

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prints, knowledge of Italian High Renaissance and Mannerist painting

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expanded. Marcantonio Raimondi, the most famous of these

and drawings. Engravers in the 16th century enlarged Mantegna's practice of

creating prints after works in other media. Through these interpretive

reproductive engravers, executed prints after celebrated Itatian painters, particularly Raphael. Marcantonio's engravings display the

printmaker's aim to create painterly effects of soft, rounded flesh

through a fine network of crosshatchings and parallel lines.

In Italy, the 16th century witnessed a ferlile period of

drawing. As in earlier years of the Renaissance, most drawings were generally considered personal, individual expressions of an artistrs

thoughts regarding the design of a work of contrast

to the m,edieval

art. This view is in

ad'ist, who relied on the teachings of the

church and who copied designs from pattern-books or illuminated manuscripts. Rather, in these later centuries in ltaly, individuality and the ability to create were highly pnzed; these principles lifted the artist

to a higher social position. Generally, drawings were either quick sketches gving the "first thought" of an idea, delatled studies usually

drawn from nature, or synthesized drawings of the whole composition, sometimes used as cartoons or preliminary designs for frescoes or paintings. In addition, sketches were often conceived with

the aim of having prints engraved after them. Infrequently, drawings

would be created as independent works of art, a case in point being when Michelangelo gave drawings unrelated to other works as $fts to friends. One encounters two primary inks in Old Master drawings.

Iron gall, a btackish brown, is created from iron lilings and oak galls (swellings on outer oak bark), and was used on medieval

; manuscripts. Bister, a brown ink made from soot, is known to have been used since the 14th century. Washes of ink and touches of

white pigment often embellish and provide volume and chiaroscuro elfects in bister drawings. Highly susceptible to damage caused by

overexposure to light, iron gall and bister drawings are presenred

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through the care of generations of thoughtful collectors who placed

them in albums or portfolios. In addition to light, the acid inherent in

iron gall ink drawings has the propensity to damage the paper.

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Collecting in Italy began with practical ends in mind as patrons and artists gathered together drawings for study purposes.

For instance, in the 15th century

in Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici

collected drawings and cartoons by Uccello, Masaccio, and other

Florentine masters. One of the lirst Italian collections which was more diverse and non-local in nature is that formed by Gorgio Vasari,

the 16th-century artist, architect, and historian of Renaissance

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who documented and mounted in albums the Italian drawings he acquired. However, it is the 17th and l8th centuries which are most identified with the assembling of extensive European collections of

drawings. Particularly in France, thousands of drawings were gathered together. During this period of feverish collecting, the

collector's mark was established, a letter or symbol written or stamped on the drawing which would thereafter identify the collector. Several prominent collections developed during these years. One of

the grandest "cabinets" of Itatian OId Master drawings was the one formed in France by Pierre Crozat, who brought together in the early

l8th century 19,000 drawings from several renowned Italian collections and who held discussions on the drawings in his hdtel in Paris.

(,i Giulio Bonasone (1498 - 1575) TheWounded Scipio (after Polidoro da Caravaggo), c. 1546 Engraving on laid paper 7 7lB x 10 13/16 inches Gft of Museum Patrons

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GMO463.1019

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Prorrcnance: David James, Miami

In the print, Scipio, the Roman general, is depicted surrounded by groups of soldiers after being wounded in combat against Hannibal in the Punic Wars. The heavy-

set bodies lit awkwardly into a claustrophobic space layered with elements like an

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ancient relief.

Born in Bologna, Bonasone was a painter and prolific reproductive engtavet influmced by Marcantonio in the modeling of his figures and probably in the choice of his profession. Eclectic, Bonasone engraved after Parmigianino, Giuto Romano, Titian, Primaticcio, and

others. He sometimes experimmted with etching, using the quicker plate. later in his career, he executed prints

technique to outline forms on the copper after his own designs.

This print is believed to have been done around 1546, and is considered to be

after an image by Polidoro da Caravaggio, whose fresco at Porta Angelica carried this

theme. A much-copied design, the fresco composition is ihe subject of two drawings, one in the Albertipa Museum in Vienna, the other in Florence at the UIIizi. In 1593, Jean Saenredam a<ecuted an engraving after the design by Polidoro.

Luca Cambiaso (1527 - 1585) Madonnain Glory, c. 1580 Iron gall ink on thin laid paper with small watermark L2718 x 10 inches University Purchase GMO470.2602

Provenance: Sir Richard Cosway (Lugt 629)

[H. Shickman Gallery, NewYork] Uterature: H. Shickman GallesJ, Drhibition of Old Master Drawings, New York, 1968, no.

Lrca Cambiaso Drawings, 1967, no. 69; William D. Paul, Jr., 'The Georgia Museum of Art at the Unfuersity of Georgia," ArtJoumal, )OO(, no. 3 27

(i11.);

(Spring 1972): 29O. E:rhibitions: H. Shicknan Gallery, Exhibition of Old Master Dnr,lrnrgs,

Nal York,

1968;

Luca Catnbiaso Drawings, Finch College Museum ofArt, Nov. 22, L967 -

Jan.2t. 1968.

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Luca Cambiaso, Madonna

Glory

Luca Cambiaso (1527 - 1585) Standing Puuo Brown ink and wash on paper

6ll4x4inches University Purchase c,MoA7t.2674 Provenance [H. Shickrnan Gdery, New York] Madonna in Glory, a(ecuted in an abrupt ard sketctry outline style, represents an air-borne figure ofihe Madonna surounded by cherubic puui. The other drawing by Cambiaso in the collection, Slandhg R tlo, presents a twisting putlo with downward gaze resting on billowing clouds and drawn in curling outlines and soft urashes.

A Mannerist, Luca Cambiaso was the chief painter in the northern city of Genoa in the 16th century. He is celebrated for drawings with simplified, sometimes cubistic forms and punctuated, rtrythmic lines suggesting rapid

movemmt. In the 2oth

century, he has been particularly admired and collected because of the close correspondences betwem his technique and contemporary preferences for spontaneity and abstraction. In 1583, Luca went to Spain, becoming court painter to Philip II.

ln lhe Madonna in Glory, the stamp on the recto signilies that the drawing at 629). Drawn with iron

one time belonged in the collection of Sir Richard Cosway (Lugt

ga[ ink, the drawing operienced several deteriorating acidic passages which have been conserved in recent years. Uke Madorup in Glory, Standing Pulto appears to be a study for a painting or fresco.

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Luca Cambiaso, Standing Putto

Master of the Die (flourished in Rome, 1532 - 1533) Psyche Entering the Underworld (alier Raphael) Engraving on paper

T5lBx9inches Gift of Alfred H. Holbrook GMOA 69. 2583

Bartsch 64-ll

Provenance: S. William Pelletier, Athms, Georgia

E:thibiton: OId Master Prints tom tlre Pemarent Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, Dec.

2, 1989 -lan.2L,1990, no. 25.

This print is from a series of 32 engravings after Raphaet on the history of Psyche, the long-sulfering ancient mythological ligwe who represents the mind or soul.

In this, the 26th in the sequence, Psyche stops at the entrance to the underworld and gives gifts to Cerberus, the three-headed dog which in Greek mythology guards Hades, lhe underworld. She is surrounded by a fult, highly structured setting of distant clouds, detailed landscape with women, and foregrotrnd legend. The Master of the Die, so-called because of the letter B' placed on a die in many of the prints attributed to him, flourished in Rome during 1532-1533. He is generally thought to have been a follower of Marcantonio because of the similarities in treatment of line and sculptural masses in his engravings. This impression carries the

signatue of publisher Antonio Salamanca.

fl Francesco Parmi$anino (1503 - 1540) St. Peter and St.John Healing the Cripples at the Gate of the Temple, (alter Raphael) c. 1530 Etching on paper lO7/8x 157lB inches University Purchase GMOA73.2SO5

Bartsch 7JI

Provenance: Eizabeth Sahling, New York

[David Tunick, Inc.,

Nar York]

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Literature: Richard S. Schneiderman, "Masterpieces of European Printmaking: 15th-19th Centuries," Georgia Museun of Art Bulletin9 (Winta-Spring 1984), no. 14 (p.17), ill. p. 18;James W. Ala<ander, "From the Collection,rr Georgia Museum of Art News (SPring 1985). E<hibition: Masterpieces of European kintmaking: 15th'19th Centuiles, Georgta Museum of Art, Sept. 21 -De"c.31, 1983.

ln the etching, St. Peter and St. John bless a crippled man at the entrance to the temple while another lame pilgrim and groups of men, women, and children look upon the scene.

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino, was a Painier in 1505 in Parma,

and etcher as well as a designer of woodcuts and engravings. Born he lived in Rome from 1524

1527 t"rntil the invasion of that city and in Bologna from

1527 until 1530. In Bologna, where he probably created most of his etchings, he organized a printrnaking workshop where he commissioned woodcutters to create Prints

after his drawings. Through this workshop, Parmigianino introduced the German chiaroscuro color woodcut into ltaly. In 1540, he died at the Young age of 37 in Casalmaggiore.

An early Mannerist admired for his gracious, often attenuated forms, Parmigianino established etching with all of its possibilities fot light, sketctty lines as a

medium in its own right. He may have learned the process ftom Marcantonio who had also fled Rome for Bologna. In the following centurY, etching would become the chief printmaking medium in ltaly.

The etching in the collection of the Georgia Museum of Art is based on a design for a tapestry by Raphael mtitled The Healing of the Lame Man (see .{cts III, 1-7),

commissioned for the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel. The print is also known in impressions combining chiaroscuro woodcut and etching, an unusual combination for the time.

6 { Marcantonio Raimondi (t4BO - t527) The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia (alter Raphael) Engraving on paper 9 LfZ x 16 1/8 inches Gft of Alfred H. Holbrook GMOA67.1857

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Provenance: lAssociated American Artists, New York] Literature: Richard S. Schneiderman, "Masterpieces of European Printmaking: 15th-19th Cmturies,rr Georgia Museun of Art Bulleting (Winter-Spring 1984), no. 13

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(p. 17). E:rhibition: Masterpieces of European kinbnaking: 15th-19th Centuries, Georgia Museum ofArt, Sept.

-Dec.31, 1983.

In the middle of the print, St. Cecitia, a martYr of rhe Roman Catholic Church

who died c. 23O A.D., clasps her hands together and looks up from the cauldron of burning oil in which she is immersed towards the sky to behold an angel bringing her a crown of leaves. At the same time, men offer to her the heads of her husband and brother-in-law., The scme takes place in a Roman architectual setting adorned wiih the

figures of a prefecl. senators, soldiers, other onlookers, and a statue ofJupiter, the powerful god of ancient Roman mythology. This print was executed after a drawing by Raphael for a fresco in the chapel of the villa Magliana near Rome. The central portion of the fresco was destroyed in the 19th century; ihe remaining part is in the museum at Narbonne. The martyrdom is said

to ha\re taken place on the land where the villa stood. This particular impression is ftom

a later edition published by Antonio Salamanca and Van Aelst. Up until the 19th century, it was a typical practice to issue neur editions of old prints. Marcantoniors controlled line is insphed by Dfirer, whose prints he studied

and copied inVenice

in 1505.

Around 1510 theyounger artist moved to Rome and

worked chielly for Raphael by engraving prints of drawings after the master. After the sack of Rome

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he moved to Bologna, where he died in obscurity.

A prolific reproductive engravet, Marcantonio tfuough his prints spread the designs and the ideals of the High Renaissance. His engravings were popular as reproductions until the advent of photography reproduce or

rrinterpretrr

in the 19th century. Informative, they

known or lost works. Not strictly imitati\re, however, he often

placed new elements in the backgrounds and foregrounds to create more complete

settings. This is apparent in many of his engravings after Raphael, who generally supplied him with sketches. Marcantonio dramaltzed designs through sculptural form and painterly effects. His delicate shading technii{ue of crosshatchings and parallel lines influenced generations

of future engravefs.

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- cllower of Girolamo Romanino (1484187 - 1562) Adoration of the Shepherds Brown ink and gray wash on paper mounted on board B 1/B x 5 1/4 inches University Purchase GMOA 70.2599

Provenance: Cqllection ofPierre Crozat (?) 1661

1740 (Lugt474)

[H. Shickman Gallery, NewYork] Literature: H. Shickrnan Gallery, Exl'tibition of Old Master Dnwings, New York, 1968,

no. 13 (ill.); "Recent Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," Arl

Qnfierly

Nlltrjlter 1970): 458.

Erhibition: H. Shickman Gallel:'J, Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, 1968, no. 12.

In this drawing, the artist depicts the celebration of the birth ofJesus. ln staccato strokes, curious onlookers and farm animals, frenetic putti,

a d excited

spectators attend the scene, thought to be executed by a follower of Girolamo Romanino. A prolific painter born in Brescia in Northern ltaly, Girolamo early on executed

pictures for churches in his native

city. ln

1521 he joined the painter Moretto in

decorating the church of San Giovanni at Cremona. The drawing may be related to

paintings by Girolamo of the same subject in Brescia and in ihe National Gallery in

London. It has the unfettered energy ofa schizzo, a quick sketch which for Renaissance and Baroque artists canied the initial ideas for a painting. fresco, or other work of art. The distinctive collectorrs mark on lhe recto of the drawing is thought to be the

first mark of Pierre Crozat (1661

L74O), a major collector

of ltalian Old Master

drawings, who, according to tradition, abandoned the mark for another because this one was obrtrusive.

6 -l Gkrlio Romano (alter) (1499 - 1546) Triurnph of ScipioWl Ink and wash heightened with white on green paper 16 314 x22 3/4 inches Gft of The Callaway Foundation, LaGrange, Georga

Provenance: [Zeitlin and Ver Brugge Booksellers, Los Angeles]

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Literature: Zeitlin and Ver Brugge, Old Mastu Dnwings, Los Angeles, 1g66, no. 215, pl.

GMOA66.1637

no.57; Dnwings and Prints of the ffA

First

Maniera 1S1S - lS3S, 1973, no. 26;

Sophisticated and Courtty Sty1c.i The Cfuistian Science

Monitor,Ttp

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Home Forum section (March 31, 1973), ill., unpaginated; Glorious H orsemen: Equestrian Art

in Europe, I fiO - 1 gOO, Museum of Fine Arts,

Springlield, Mass., 1981, no. 154 (p. lS6). E:<hibitions: Zeitlin and Ver Brugge, Old Master Drawings, Los Angetes, November,

L96g Drawings and Prints of the Fkst Manien 1S1S - 1535, Feb. 22 March 25, 1973; Glorious Horsemen: Equestdan Art in Europe, 1SO0 I80O, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfietd, Mass., Sept. 9 - Nov. 29, l9g1 and J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisvitle, Ky., Jan. I - Feb. 28, 1992.

In the second Punic War against Carthage, from 2lg - ZOI B. C., Scipio, the Roman general, Iinally defeated Hannibat. In this drawing by a follower of Giulio Romano, Roman horsemen, watched by spectators in the foreground, follow in the triumphal procession of Scipio into Rome. The representation is based on the story of scipio as told by Appian n r!r,e Punic wars Mll. ix. 66): "Then followed those who had served him in the war as secretaries, aides, and armor bearers.r'

Giulio Romano, a mqjor ligure of Mannerist art, was in charge of painting, architecture, and decoration for the Palazzo del

re of Duke Federico Gonzaga in Mantua. Born and trained in Rome, where ancient sculpture infuenced him greatly, Giulio studied under and became a chief assistant to Raphael. ln 1524 lhe younger artist setued in Mantua, where he died in 1546.

Much in demand, Giulio managed a large workshop of assistants who executed many of his designs after composition drawings of ink and wash. The Scipio series by Giulio was planned for tapestries. According to art historian and biographer Frederick Hartt, the drawing in the Georgia Museum of Art was probabty created ,'by a

dose follower for a patron who wished another series of scipio tapestries" (Hartt, tetter

to william H. Paul, Jr., dated 24 April 1970). The drawing is thus betieved to be a contemporary copy of one of the studies for a set of tapestries commissioned in July

I. The original &awing by Giulio belongs to the Louwe (Lotrwe 353g). Throughout his designs, Giulio was inspired by ancient Roman motifs. As has been suggested, the "stacking" of figures in this sheet is reminiscent of the ancient 1532 by Francis

column of rr4ian while the horses and riders recall the statue of Marcus Aurelius.

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Giulio Romano, Tiumph ot Scipio

Drawings and Prints of the First Maniera 1515 - 1535. Department of Art, Brown University at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, 1973. The Engravtngs of Marcantonio Raimondi. Elrhibition catalogue.

Spencer Musetrm of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, 1981. Frederick Harll, Gittlio Romano. New Haven: Yale UniversitY Press, 1958.

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JayA. Levenson, KonradOberhuber, andJacquelyn L. Sheehan. Early Italian EnEravings from the National Gallery of tul Washington, D. C. : National Gallery of Art, 1973.

Robert L. Manning, Luca Camffiaso Drawings. Finch College Museum of Art, Nanr York, N. Y., 1967. Sue Welsh Reed and Richard Wallace, Italian Etches of the Renaissance andBaroque. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,

Mass., 1989. Marcus S. Sopher, with the assislance of Claudia Lazzaro-Bruno. Si*eenth-Century ltalian Pfints. E:<hibition catalogue. Montgomery Art Gallery, Pomona College, Claremont,

Califomia, 1978.