Giulio Bonasone’s engraving, “The Birth of John the Baptist”, c1550 after Jacopino del Conte

Giulio Bonasone (1500/10–1574)

“The Birth of John the Baptist” (TIB title), c1550 (1531–1576), after (as proposed by the BM) Jacopino del Conte (1513–1598) or (as proposed by Bartsch/TIB, but less likely) Jacopo da Pontormo (aka Jacopo Carrucci) (1494–1557), published in Rome by Carlo Losi (fl.1757–1805).

Engraving on laid paper with large margins and flattened centrefold.

Size: (sheet) 41.5 x 56.4 cm; (unevenly cut plate) 29.6 x 45.3 cm; (image borderline) 28.7 x 44.9 cm.

Lettered in plate: (lower centre) “Romæ apud Carolum Losi”; (on column pedestal) “IACOBVS/ FLORENTINVS/ IN VENTOR// NATIVITAS / BEATI IOANNIS / BAPTISTÆ// IVLIO B. F.”

State v (of v), with the erasure of previous publishers and the addition of the publication details for Losi.

TIB 28 (15).76 (131) (Suzanne Boorsch & John Spike [eds.] 1985, The Illustrated Bartsch: Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century”, New York, Abaris Books, vol. 28, p. 280, cat. no. 76; vol 28 [comm.], pp. 285–86, cat. no. [2803].076 S5); Cumberland 50 (1793, p. 56); Huber 10 (vol. 3, p. 110); Armano 218 (p. 41); Le Blanc 71 (vol.1, p. 412); Massari 71 (1983, vol. 1, p. 66).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “The Birth of St John the Baptist who is held aloft by the woman at the left, Elizabeth is in the bed, the scene is set against classical architecture” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_H-7-74)

Regarding the quandary about the author of the original design of this print, TIB (vol. 28 [comm.], p. 285) proposes that this print “could well preserve a lost composition by Jacopino del Conte”, as it may reproduce “a rejected design by Jacopino from around 1538 for the scene of this subject in the Oratory of S. Giovanni Decollato, Rome.” Interestingly, the rejection of the design may have arisen because of “rivalry between Jacopino and [Francesco] Salviati while they both worked on projects at the Oratorio.” TIB goes on to explain that “Bartsch's misattribution of this design to Pontormo can be traced to a 1731 description by [Pierre] Mariette in a letter to Gaburri” (cited by Giovanni Bottari [1757] in “Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura scritte da'più celebri personaggi che in dette arti fiorirono dal secolo XV. al XVII ..”, vol. 2, p. 231; see https://archive.org/details/raccoltadiletter02bott/page/230/mode/2up).

Condition: a well-printed and slightly silvery impression with generously wide margins and a flattened centrefold. The sheet has surface dustiness (mainly visible in the margins) and there seems to be some offsetting of ink within the image on the lower left, otherwise the sheet is in good condition with no significant issues.

I am selling this large old master engraving from a late edition by Carlo Losi showing an episode from the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:57–64) in which Zacharias (who has been struck dumb by an angel) is portrayed writing the name of the baby held aloft by the woman at left—for the total cost of AU$327 (currently US$229.04/EUR202.38/GBP173.05 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing late impression of a rare engraving exemplifying the period style of Mannerism, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

“St Andrew”, by an unidentified engraver from the circle of Giulio Bonasone, after Michelangelo, c1550

Unidentified engraver from the circle of Giulio Bonasone (1500/10–1574)

“St Andrew", c1550, after a detail of the engraving by Giulio Bonasone (c1546) (see BM no. H,4.70 and the copy held by the Rijksmuseum http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.85022), after a detail of Michelangelo’s (1475–1564) “Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel.

Engraving on laid paper trimmed with small margins around the platemark and re-margined on a support sheet.

Size: (re-margined support sheet) 38.4 x 28.6 cm; (sheet) 20.1 x 13.2 cm; (plate) 19.8 x 12.5 cm

Numbered at lower right: “40”

Copy (of a detail) after TIB 28 (15). 79 (132) (Suzanne Boorsch & John Spike (eds.) 1985, “The Illustrated Bartsch: Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century”, vol. 28, Abaris, New York, p. 283); Bartsch XV.132.79

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Naked male figure supporting a cross on his back, after Michelangelo's Last Judgement.”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3223666&partId=1&searchText=after+michelangelo&page=3)

Condition: superb impression trimmed close to the platemark with a small restored loss (virtually invisible) to the tip of the upper left corner and re-margined on an archival support sheet.

I am selling this rare engraving executed around the same time that Michelangelo was working on the “Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel for AU$240 (currently US$187.63/EUR153.07/GBP135.70 at the time of posting this listing). Postage for this print is extra and will be the actual/true cost.

If you are interested in purchasing this visually arresting engraving, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy. 

This print has been sold

There are a few features of this engraving separating it from Bonasone’s version of St Andrew (originally titled less specifically as “Study of a Figure Bearing a Cross”) from Michelangelo’s “Last Judgement” in the Sistine Chapel. For example, the figure immediately behind St Andrew has been omitted and the composition shows a closer view of the saint with the added modesty of a loin cloth. Nevertheless, both prints share the same stylistic leaning to what Madeline Cirillo Archer (1995) in her commentary volume on the TIB catalogue raisonné (vol. 28) describes as Marcantonio Raimondi’s “technique and sculptural approach” (p. 287). Regarding this approach, Archer explains that in the late 1540s Bonasone had a “developed understanding … for the plastic potential of burin work that follows the volumes of the body” (ibid).

Interestingly, just as this unidentified engraver has omitted details from Bonasone’s print, so too had Bonasone omitted details from Michelangelo’s composition. This notion of only keeping what the reproductive artist perceived to be significant features of an original composition, however, was a fairly standard practice during the Renaissance era and was certainly a practice that even Raimondi engaged in. To help explain the need to change compositions, Archer (1995) proposes the following insight into Bonasone’s selective process: “Bonasone has separated the group [St Andrew and the figure behind him] from its crowded environment and created a new composition which, in its isolation, magnifies its power” (ibid).

This image of St Andrew (albeit Bonasone’s version) is well known to avid book readers as it features on the cover of Bernard Barryte’s (2015) marvellous, enormous and heavy exhibition catalogue, “Myth, Allegory, and Faith: The Kirk Edward Long Collection of Mannerist Prints” (exh. cat. Cantor Arts Center). With reference to this composition, Barryte offers the following wonderful description of its power:

“… Bonasone seems purposely to minimise his own virtuosity, employing relatively simple means to render the figure. He depends on design—the precise placement of the figure on the plate and the stark contrast between black ink and pale paper—for visual drama and employs a minimalist combination of relatively long, parallel, curving lines, simple cross hatching, and selective stippling to reveal the rotundity of muscles and the massive solidity of the figure.” (p. 368).