The Massacre of the Innocents (Le Blanc 7)

Details

Giovanni Battista de Cavalieri (1525-1601)
The Massacre of the Innocents (Le Blanc 7)
engraving, 1561, printed on two joined sheets, without watermark, a fine impression of this rare, large print, first state (of three), with wide margins left and right and small margins above and below, a few flattened folds mostly visible verso, some pale staining, otherwise in good condition
P. 470 x 590 mm., S. 490 x 670 mm.

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Lot Essay

The depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents has traditionally also been associated with Baccio Bandinelli (see previous lot). In 1999, after the emergence of an impression of the present, very rare first state in the Bibliothèque National, Suzanne Boorsch interpreted the inscription Jo Baptista de Cavalle / ris Lagerinus incideb. / in AEdibus Salvianis. / .M.D.LXI. / ROMAE. as referring to the Florentine painter Francesco Salviati (Print Quarterly, 1999, vol. XVI, no. 3, p. 266f.). In the discussion following the discovery of this previously undescribed state however Michael Bury argued that the inscription related to the printer and publisher Ippolito Salviani, in whose workshop the engraving was presumably printed; a view then also shared by Boorsch (Print Quarterly, 2000, vol. XVII, no. 2, p.190). The question of the attribution of the composition hence remains uncertain.

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