Benigno Bossi, “Allegory of Painting Next to the Marble Bust of Count Giulio Ascanio Scutellari”, 1772

Benigno Bossi (1727–1792)

“Allegory of Painting Next to the Marble Bust of Count Giulio Ascanio Scutellari” (Allegoria della Pittura accanto al busto marmoreo del conte Giulio Ascanio Scutellari), 1772, a lifetime impression published in Parma by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) (see http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12835/72334).

Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate specific biographical information about Count Giulio Ascanio Scutellari, the individual referenced in the title and whose bust is beside the allegorical figure of Painting. However, if the Count is also known as Guido Ascanio Scutellari Ajani (1711–1800), he would have been an Italian poet. While this remains speculative, it is plausible given the presence of the putti reading beneath the bust, which aligns with the theme of poetry and learning.

Etching with engraving on laid paper trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 14 x 7.6cm; (image borderline) 13.4 x 7.1cm.

Inscribed in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Bossi In. Sculp.”

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with a narrow margin around the image borderline and laid upon a sheet of millennium quality washi paper providing wide margins. Beyond a small stain on the head of the personification of painting, the sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, or significant stains.

I am selling this remarkably strong lifetime impression of a very beautiful etching showing the personification of painting holding a palette and brushes beside a sculpted bust—possibly portraying the Italian poet Guido Ascanio Scutellari Ajani—with putti avidly exploring books, for the total cost of AU$302 (approximately US$195.99, EUR 169.31 or GBP 147.42), including express mail shipping worldwide. Import duties, if any, are the responsibility of the buyer.

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

Benigno Bossi, “Head of a Man Wearing a Hat, Facing Right”, 1755

Benigno Bossi (1727–1792)

“Head of a Man Wearing a Hat, Facing Right” (Harvard title) (aka “Testa d'Uomo con Cappello”), 1755 (as dated in plate), plate 11 from the series of forty-three numbered plates (including the title plate), “Raccolta di Teste” (Collection of Heads). Following the inscription, I understand that this etching was executed in Dresden (Dresdae) where the artist was introduced to etching.

Size: (sheet) 12.9 x 9 cm; (plate) 9.6 x 7.5 cm.

Inscribed in plate: (upper right) “11”; (lower right) “Bossi f Dresdae/ 1755.”

The Harvard Art Museums offer a description of this print from an earlier state: https://hvrd.art/o/275536.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with small margins laid upon a sheet of millennium quality washi paper providing wide margins. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, losses or stains.

I am selling this sensitively executed etching of a man’s head, for AU$249 (equivalent to approximately US$158.60, EUR 151.58, or GBP 125.63 at the time of listing) and includes Express Mail Service (EMS) postage and handling to any worldwide destination. Please note that any import duties or taxes levied by the destination country are the responsibility of the buyer and are not included in the purchase price. Payment is requested in Australian dollars (AU$249).

If you are interested in purchasing this insightful study of a man’s head, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Benigno Bossi’s etchings, “Plate 6” & “Plate 9”, 1755

Benigno Bossi (1727–1792)

(left) “Plates 6” (aka “Head of a Boy, Profile Left”), 1755 (as dated in plate)

(right) “Plate 9” (aka “Head of a Boy Holding a Book”, c1755

Two etchings of the head of a youth facing left on laid paper from the series of forty-three numbered plates (including the title plate), “Raccolta di Teste” (Collection of Heads).

Size: (each sheet) 27 x 18.6 cm; (each plate) 9.4/9.6 x 7/7.5 cm.

“Plate 6” inscribed faintly in plate: (upper left) “Benigno Bossi f-.1755.”; (upper right) “6”.

“Plate 9” inscribed faintly in plate: (upper left) “Bossi In. f.”; (upper right) “9”.

The Harvard Art Museums offer a description of “Plate 6” in an earlier state before the plate was reduced in size and reworked: https://hvrd.art/o/275984.

The Rijksmuseum and The Harvard Art Museums offer descriptions of “Plate 9” in an earlier state when it was inscribed, “nō V”: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.86262 & https://hvrd.art/o/275973.  

Interestingly, Benjamin Green (1739–1798)—purported to have been the first printmaker to make a soft-ground etching—copied Bossi’s “Plate 6” in the reverse direction as a soft-ground etching (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1861-1012-2390).

Condition: strong and well-printed impressions with generous margins and in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, losses, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this pair of sensitive studies of a boy facing left, for the total cost of AU$428 for the pair (currently US$309.97/EU286.93/GBP241.51 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 this pair of small and very beautiful etchings, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Note that I have three other etchings by Benigno Bossi that are still available: https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2021/01/benigno-bossis-etchings-portrait-of-man.html & https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2019/12/benigno-bossis-etching-allegory-of-time.html.

 

Benigno Bossi’s etchings: “Portrait of a Man Facing Right”, 1773; “Portrait of a Young Girl Wearing a Scarf”, 1783

Benigno Bossi (1727–1792)

Two etchings with dot-roulette printed in sanguine coloured ink on laid paper

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LEFT

“Portrait of a Man Facing Right” (descriptive title), 1773, plate 28 from the series of 49 plates (including the frontispiece and antiporta), “Raccolta di teste inventate, disegnate e incise da B. Bossi” (Transl. “Collection of heads created, drawn, and engraved by Benigno Bossi”), published by Gioachino Bettalli and C Cont.a of Capello (as inscribed on the title plate). There is a preliminary drawing for this print held in the Museo Glauco Lombardi (Parma).

Size: (sheet) 19.5 x 15.8 cm; (plate) 12.7 x 10.2 cm; (image borderline) 11.8 x 9.3 cm

Inscribed: (upper right) “28”; (lower left) “Benigno Bossi In. f. Parma 1773”

LeBlanc 64-103; Museo Glauco Lombardi, Parma, inv. no. 7232 (etching); F Sandrini, ‎L F Schianchi & ‎P Sivieri 2003, “Museo Glauco Lombardi: Maria Luigia e Napoleone”, p. 117 (lo splendido Ritratto virile a sanguigna); see also “The Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection: Italian and Spanish books, fifteenth through nineteenth centuries”, National Gallery of Art, 2000, p.77f.

RIGHT

“Portrait of a Young Girl Wearing a Scarf” (descriptive title), 1783, plate 37 from the series, “Raccolta di teste inventate, disegnate e incise da B. Bossi”, published by Gioachino Bettalli and C Cont.a of Capello.

Size: (sheet) 12 x 10.4 cm; (plate) 6.6 x 6.8 cm; (image borderline) 5.6 x 6.2 cm

Inscribed: (upper right) “37”; (lower left) “Bossi In. f. 1783”

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Condition: richly inked and well-printed impressions with generous margins and in an excellent condition (i.e., there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, losses, significant stains or signs of handling).

I am selling this pair of remarkably sensitive studies, for the total cost of AU$428 for the pair (currently US$331.99/EU273.39/GBP242.77 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 this pair of small and very beautiful etchings, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

What I find interesting about this pair of etchings is that the left print was executed midway through Bossi’s artistic career, whereas the right one was executed ten years later and may be viewed as exemplifying his fully matured style.

From my reading of his earlier stylistic leanings (as exemplified by the left print), Bossi had initially adopted a rather formulaic style involving squiggles and evenly spaced return-strokes aligned at much the same angle. By contrast, his mature style (as exemplified by the right print), reveals that Bossi had moved away from his earlier faux boldness to a more intuitively exploratory approach involving sensitive strokes laid as mimetic equivalents for the subject’s physical attributes—dots to connote flesh, thick lines to suggest coarse fabric and fine lines to signify soft fabric. Essentially, Bossi had shifted in his way of looking from a singular vision where style was more important than the portrayed subject (the left print) to a more adaptive vision when the artist’s response to the subject was more important than style (the right print).