Agostino Carracci

Maurice Rosenheim;
sale, Sotheby's, 2 May 1923, lot 7;
Henry Scipio Reitlinger (L.2274a, on the old mount),
his sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 December 1953, part of lot 35 (purchased at the sale, £5)

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1921;
Bologna, Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, Mostra dei Carracci, 1956, no. 47;
London, Royal Academy, The Paul Oppé Collection, 1958, no. 270;
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Prints and Related Drawings by the Carracci Family, 1979, no. 193a;
Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, L'Idea del Bello, Viaggio per Roma nel Seicento con Giovan Pietro Bellori, 2000, no. III.9 

T. Borenius, 'Drawings and Engravings by the Carracci,' The Print Collector's Quarterly, vol. IX, 1922, p. 114, reproduced p. 111;
H. Bodmer, Die Entwicklung der Stechkunst des Agostino Carracci II, Die Graphischen Kunste, 1940, p. 58, note 1 (as not by Agostino);
D. DeGrazia Bohlin, Prints and Related Drawings by the Carracci Family, Washington, 1979, p. 310, under no. 193, reproduced fig. 193a, and back cover;
L'Idea del Bello, Viaggio per Roma nel Seicento con Giovan Pietro Bellori, exhib. cat., Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 2000, vol. II, pp. 222-223, no. III.9

The sheet is silhouetted and laid down on an old English mount with a decorative washed border (perhaps D. Price or West). A thin fold in the centre running vertically. Horizontally below the centre are some creases due to the drying of the sheet. Some light brown staining scattered at the top and a some greyish studio stains also at the top and in the middle. Some ridges and creases. The media and image are strong.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This attractive and important drawing is a study by Agostino, in reverse, for one of his most decorative and elegant engravings (B. 260), known as Il ventaglio (fig. 1).  The unusual subject is unique in Agostino’s œuvre, and although the related engraving has always being interpreted, even by the early biographers Bellori¹ and Malvasia,² as representing a fan, the actual function of the object depicted is still debated.  Though indented for transfer and with similar measurements to the print, the Oppé drawing differs from the print in a number of respects, indicating that Agostino must have executed most of the design directly onto the copper.  As Diane DeGrazia observed, ‘Agostino needed to transfer only the most basic contours to the plate to give himself a general idea of the composition’,³ and this seems to be very characteristic of his working method.  Also revealing of his working method is the fact that the intensity of the red chalk underdrawing is much greater on the right side of the sheet than on the left, and we are grateful to Martin Clayton for pointing this out, and for suggesting that this is probably because Agostino folded the sheet vertically, executing the red chalk drawing only on the right side and then making a counterproof of it on the left. By this means, he could ensure complete symmetry. 

The spontaneity and vivacity of the present sheet are further witness to the fact that Agostino did not seek to make a highly detailed preparatory drawing for his print. The bust of a lady in the central medallion in the drawing, looking out to the viewer with a lively expression, would become Diana in the print, with a separate alternative medallion with the head of Minerva added towards the edge of the plate, outside the main design.  Other differences can be found in, for instance, the head of a putto surmounting the central medallion, and below, in the second decorative cartouche, where the writing indicated in the drawing (of which only the first line, ‘Donna mentre i begli occhi’, is actually legibly written), is replaced with an oval landscape with a satyr and two nymphs.  For this second medallion too, Agostino added two alternative designs, separately engraved in the margins of his print.

Diane DeGrazia (see Literature) questioned the idea of the engraving being a design for a fan, and suggested that it could actually relate to a festival headpiece created for a sumptuous event, possibly the marriage of Fedinando de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine, in 1589, with which Agostino seem to have been involved.  She observed that such a headpiece could have been destined to be used for one of the processions, or in one of the plays or intermezzi that were a part of the festivities.  DeGrazia also proposed a somewhat later dating to that suggested by Mahon in the 1956 exhibition catalogue,⁴ circa 1589-95.  Ann Sutherland Harris supports a dating of around 1589 for Agostino’s print, stressing the importance of the event for which such a print would have been commissioned, and concurring that link with the Medici wedding of that year is plausible.⁵ Both she and DeGrazia have noted that Jacques Callot also made such engravings to be cut out and used in festivals, such as his well-known Fan, executed in 1619.⁶ 

Though very characteristic of Agostino’s drawing style, this is an extremely rare example of his representing a highly decorative and luxurious object, clearly executed for an important commission.  The handling of the pen is free and vigorous and the underdrawing in red chalk enriches and modulates the composition, creating a pictorial and animated effect.  Agostino had a brief apprenticeship with a goldsmith, from whom he would first have learned to use the burin, a tool essential for his career as a print maker.  This training could also have given the artist a creative sense for elaborate details, such as the great variety of forms shown here in the cartouche and in the decorative elements, which are an intrinsic and vital aspect of this unique and handsome drawing. 

Sold with an impression of the print (fig.1).

^1. A. Sedgwick Wohl, H. Wohl, T. Montanari, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects, (trans. A. Sedgwick Wohl) New York 2005, p. 124

^2. C.C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice Vite dei Pittori Bolognesi, ed. Zanotti, Bologna 1841, vol. I, p. 77

^3. D. DeGrazia Bohlin, loc. cit.

^4. In his 1956 catalogue entry for the engraving, Denis Mahon proposed a dating to the mid-1580s; see exhib. cat., Bologna 1956, op. cit., p. 171, no. 254

^5. See A. Sutherland Harris in exhib. cat., Rome 2000, op. cit., p. 223, no. 10

^6. Loc. cit.