Camillo Tinti, “Saint Catherine”, 1771, after Parmigianino

Camillo Tinti (1738–1796)—a pupil of Domenico Cunego (1727–1803)

“Saint Catherine” (aka “S. Catharina”), 1771, plate 15 after Parmigianino’s (aka Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola; Francois Mazzuoli) (1503–1540) oil painting on wood, “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine”, c.1527–31, in the collection of the National Gallery, London (see https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/parmigianino-the-mystic-marriage-of-saint-catherine), from the series of forty plates (including the frontispiece), “Schola Italica Picturae” (Italian School of Painting), published in Rome in 1773 by Gavin Hamilton (1723–1798).

Etching with engraving on heavy laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 41 x 34.9cm; (plate) 33.9 x 26.1cm; (image borderline) 30.3 x 24.4cm.

Numbered in plate above the image borderline: (lright””15”.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “F. Mazzola detto il Parmigianino pinxit”; (centre) “S. Catharina/ Romae ex Tabula in Ædibus Burghesianis”; (right) “Camillus Tinti sculpsit Romæ 1771.”

Condition: a strong impression with wide margins. There is minor grubbiness to the margins, otherwise, the sheet is in a very good condition with no tears, holes, folds or significant stains.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “Plate 15: the Christ Child seated on the knee of the Virgin, he gives his hand to St Catherine who kneels by her wheel at the right, Joseph is in the bottom left corner. 1771/ Etching and engraving” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1856-0510-213 [BM inv. no. 1856,0510.213])

I am selling this finely executed etching (with engraving) portraying Saint Catherine’s mystic marriage to the Christ Child shown here with Christ placing a ring upon Saint Catherine’s “wedding” finger—arguably, Tinti’s treatment of the scene with almost mechanically laid cross-hatched lines is far removed from the feathery and ethereal brushstrokes of Parmigianino’s painting in capturing Saint Catherine’s dream-like vision of the marriage—for the total cost of AU$306 (currently US$199.01/ EUR190.95/ GBP158.75 at the time of 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. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$306) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in purchasing this translation of Parmigianino’s painting into line, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Pierre Larrieu, “Mystic Marriage of St Catherine”, c.1770, after Bartolomeo Biscaino

Pierre Larrieu (fl.1762–1774)

“Mystic Marriage of St Catherine” (descriptive title only based on my reading of the subject), c.1770, after the design (possibly a drawing) by Bartolomeo Biscaino (1629–1657). Although the composition of this etching does not follow any of Bartolomeo Biscaino’s fifty-eight documented etchings (see “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 47, pp. 192–231), there is an etching by Biscaino featuring the subject of St Catherine’s mystic marriage to the Christ Child in which St Catherine is shown wearing a similar crown (see British Museum inv. no. W,6.88: TIB 47.33).

Etching on laid paper on a wove support sheet with small margins trimmed with a with truncated corners and laid on a larger support sheet providing wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 20.3 x 24.2cm; (platemark) 18.8 x 23 cm.

Inscribed in plate: (lower left) “Larrieu sc [letter “s” in reverse]”; (lower right) “Bi[s]caino in.”

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression trimmed with a small margin truncated on each corner of the margin. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds or significant stains and laid upon a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this exceptionally rare and sensitively executed etching exemplifying a strong stylistic leaning to the Mannerist painter, Parmigianino (1503–1540), for the total cost of AU$294 (currently/approximately US$197.25/EUR181.47/GBP151.14 at the time of 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. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$294) as this is my currency.

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

Joseph Schmidt’s etching and aquatint, “Mucius Scaevola”, c1780, after Parmigianino

Joseph Schmidt (1750–1816)

“Mucius Scaevola” (aka “Mucius Scaevola putting his hand into the flame”), c1780, after a metal point drawing by Parmigianino (aka Francesco Parmigianino; Francesco Mazzuoli; Francois Mazzuoli; Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) (1503–1540) that the writing edge advises (in my reading of the text) was held by Giovanni Antonio Armano (fl.1777–1823)—the collector and dealer of old master drawings—in Venice. I understand that the drawing is now in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth; see A. E. Popham 1971, “Catalogue of Drawings by Parmigianino”, p. 211, no. 726.

Note that Cesare Massimiliano Gini ([pseud.] Lodovico Inig) (c1739–1821) executed an almost identical print (1780–1800) and colours (see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1851-0308-827)—indeed the similarity is so close that I wonder if there may be an act of skulduggery where one printmaker’s name is replaced by another.

Etching with aquatint printed in brown-black and ochre ink (possibly printed from different plates for each colour) on laid paper (with watermark) and wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 37.1 x 31.2 cm; (plate) 16 x 10.5 cm; (image borderline) 12.6 x 9.2 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Fran. Mazzola del:”; (centre) “Extat apud Joan: Anton: Armanum/ Venetum”; (right) “Jos: Schmidt Scul.”

LeBlanc (not described) (Charles Le Blanc 1854-1888, “Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes: contenant le dictionnaire des graveurs de toutes les nations”, vol. 3, Paris, p. 461); Nagler (not described) (G.K. Nagler 1845, “Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Kupferstecher, Formschneider, Lithographen: Santi­_Schoute”, pp. 346–47).

Although Nagler (1845) does not describe this plate, the following biographical information that Nagler offers may be interesting: [transl.) “Nature had denied him language, but endowed him with talent for art. Bergler gave him regular lessons in this in Prague, and finally he went to Vienna, where, under the direction of Schmutzer, he [was hired?] to become one of the most excellent engravers of his time. There are numerous sheets by him with biblical and historical scenes, individual figures, landscapes, etc., partly brilliantly engraved, partly executed in aquatint and in chalk. Among them are some very deceptive facsimiles” (p. 346).

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with generously wide margins in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds or significant stains.

I am selling this curiously wonderful print of overlaid plates of etching and aquatint where the combination of the two printing techniques replicates a chiaroscuro woodcut—mindful that Antonio da Trento (fl.1527–1540s) who worked with Parmigianino, created a chiaroscuro woodcut of a similar scene (see http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.52176)—for the total cost of AU$312 (currently US$208.79/EUR194.78/GBP170.44 at the time of 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 this superb print of the man who proved his invincible bravery by placing his hand into an altar fire, 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

Conrad Martin Metz's etching and aquatint, “The Adoration of the Shepherds”, 1789, after Parmigianino

Conrad Martin Metz (1749–1827)

“The Adoration of the Shepherds”, 1789, after a drawing by Parmigianino (aka Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola; Francesco Mazzola) (1503–1540), published in London in 1789 by Conrad Martin Metz in “Imitations of ancient and modern drawings, from the restoration of the arts in Italy to the present time: together with a chronological account of the artists, and strictures on their works, in English and French”, with 71 plates in the 1789 edition. This impression is from the later edition of 1798 published by Thomas Philipe (1740–1816) that archive.org advises had “as many as 115 plates” (see the later edition featuring this print on page 229 at archive.org [https://archive.org/details/gri_33125010706691/page/n227]; see also a detailed description of this publication offered by the British Museum: [https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3651502&page=1&partId=1&peoA=119446-1-7&people=119446]).

Etching and aquatint printed in brown ink on fine cream wove paper trimmed with a small margin around the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 23.1 x 15.9 cm; (outer image borderline) 22.4 x 15.3 cm.

Inscribed on plate at lower left corner: “CM Sc”.

Condition: well-printed (near faultless) impression, trimmed with a small (approx. 4mm) margin around the image borderline, laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this very beautiful etching with aquatint, reproducing in a very considered and clean way the subtle pen and bistre drawing (1524–27) of the same composition (but in reverse) by Parmigianino, held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/340437), for a total cost of AU$243 (currently US$167.73/EUR150.47/GBP129.29 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this marvellous gem of reproductive printmaking from the late 1700s, that is discussed in depth in a comparison with the newly discovered (in 1948) drawing by Parmigianino in Louise Burroughs’ (1948) essay, “A Drawing by Francesco Mazzola, II Parmigianino” (featured in “The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin”, 1948, New Series, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 101–107: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3257346?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A214229bc2334534c3dbf200a8d8a0bbe&seq=7#page_scan_tab_contents), please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

For those who may not have the time to read Louise Burroughs’ (1948) assessment of Martin Metz’s print in her essay (op. cit.) the following extract may be fascinating to contemplate regarding the accuracy of Metz’s interpretative translation of Parmigianino’s pen and bistre wash drawing into an etching:

“The extraordinary loss of character in the lines and of depth and harmony in the composition suffered at the hands of the engraver makes the comparison of drawing and print an absorbing study and serves to emphasize Parmigianino's brilliant style. Every figure offers some illuminating comment, none more so than the child, whose graceful movement as he emerges from the bath into his mother's arms is completely lost in the engraving. Particularly to be noticed in the drawing are the curving lines, constantly varied in strength, the parallel strokes in the shadows terminating in an accent where the contour of a muscle is indicated. From these fluid lines and strategically placed accents springs the sense of life and movement so characteristic of Francesco's drawings” (p. 101).

For a very different point of view, I wish to draw attention to what Metz believed that he had achieved with this and his other prints reproducing old master drawings (as offered in his foreword to the 1798 edition in which this print features):

“A collection of well-attested [d]rawings, carefully traced and correctly imitated ... is a process simple, and in a great degree mechanical, I may, without vanity, claim the merit of exactness” (p. 1).

Regarding Metz’s vision of Parmigianino’s drawings, the following insightful assessment is revealing:

“For grace in his [Parmigianino’s] females, and loveliness in his children, he is almost unrivalled. But these graces seem too indiscriminately bestowed on all his figures; they seem too much, as it were, cast in the same mould” (p. 10).

Francesco Rosaspina's etching, "Diana in Her Chariot Drawn by Hounds", 1788

Francesco Rosaspina (1762–1841)

“Diana in Her Chariot Drawn by Hounds” (aka “Il Carro di Diana”), 1788, after an unidentified drawing by Parmigianino (aka Francesco Parmigianino; Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola; Francois Mazzuoli; Francesco Mazzuoli) (1503–1540), plate 18 from the series of twenty-five unnumbered plates (including the frontispiece) after drawings by Parmigianino, “Celeberrimi Francisci Mazzola Parmensis Graphides per Ludovicum Inig Bononiae collectae editaeque Anno MDCCLXXXVIII”, published in 1788 by Cesare Massimiliano Gini (aka Cesare Massimiliano Gini; Lodovico Inig) (c1739–1821) in Bologna.

See the descriptions and plates in this publication along with catalogue references in the remarkably thorough account offered by Robin Halwas:

https://www.robinhalwas.com/018057-celleberrimi-francisci-mazzola-parmensis-graphides-per-ludovicum-inig-bononiae

See also the description of this publication offered by the Curator of the British Museum:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3165910&partId=1&searchText=Francesco+Rosaspina+&page=3

Regarding the fidelity of Rosaspina’s translation of drawings into prints, the British Museum offers the following biographical insights:

“Major reproductive engraver, professor of engraving at the Academy in Bologna. Made many prints after Parmigianino (q.v.) which are faithful to the originals even to the extent of replicating the historic mounts and collector's marks that many of the drawings had”.

(https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=109421)

Soft-ground etching and aquatint (with engraving for the inscribed text) printed in sanguine coloured ink on laid paper with watermark, “G entro doppio cerchio sormontato dalla croce di Lorena” (G within a double circle surmounted by the Cross of Lorraine) with full margins.

Size: (sheet) 49.2 x 39.7 cm.; (plate) 24.5 x 32.3 cm.; (outer image borderline) 22.3 x 31.8 cm.

Inscribed on plate below the image borderline: (left) F. Mazzola inv.”; “Extat apud Io. Ant. Armanum Venetum”; (right) “F. Rosaspina fecit.”

Lifetime impression as published in 1788.

Weigel 5588; Gaeta Bertelà 804; Mussini 390; De Rubeis 37 (see full entries for these references in Robin Halwas' account cited above)

Condition: faultless, richly inked lifetime impression in pristine condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing).

I am selling this large museum-quality etching of great beauty, for the total cost of AU$598 (currently US$402.64.76/EUR364.99/GBP315.73 at the time of 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 this rarely seen masterpiece of etching on the market—certainly not in this near pristine condition—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