DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7597#0470
CHAP. VI.]
SANDRO BOTTICELLI.
427
terminate abruptly at one end, near the contours of the figures, so
as to produce a harsh and disagreeable effect. Perhaps it was some-
thing of this kind to which Vasari referred when he observed of
Sandro's engravings, ' che I'intaglio era mal fatto.' It measures
twenty inches in height, by fourteen inches in width.
Mr. Bartsch considers the above inscription as decisive of the
engraving in question being merely a copy of an ancient Floren-
tine print formerly preserved in the Museum Gualdi at Rome ; but
I think this by no means a necessary inference, and am rather of
opinion that the original, spoken of as existing in 1632 at Rome, was
the design, or rather the picture, from which Botticelli had engraved
the plate ; and that this plate having long laid neglected, perhaps in
some convent of the Franciscan order, Pope Urban VIII. hearing of
it, might, in 1632, give directions that it should be republished. I
am, indeed, the more inclined to believe such to have been the
case, because Botticelli appears often to have employed himself in
painting similar representations of religious mysteries, in composi-
tions of numerous figures on a small scale; and because, in its style
of execution, the print in question, so far from having the appear-
ance of a modern copy, bears the strictest resemblance to many
known Florentine engravings of the fifteenth century.
This plate, if I am right in the opinion that it is the true one, and
not a copy, must, according to Bartsch, have been engraved between
the years 1470 and 1480. He informs us that he collects thus much
from the Annates Minorum, seu trium ordinum a S. Fransisco institu-
torum, by the father Luc Wadding. Romae, 1735. Vol. xiii. p. 456,
No. XI. where the author speaks of this ancient engraving* as being
preserved in the collection of rarities appertaining to his order. Fra
Marco, Mr. Bartsch adds, died in 1496.
* There is, unfortunately, no copy of this plate itself, and not an impression from it
work of Wadding, in the library of the only, might have been preserved, in the time
British Museum, and, consequently, I have of the writer, amongst the valuables of the
no opportunity of referring to it; else I should convent to which he belonged,
hope to find, upon examination, that the
3 i 2
SANDRO BOTTICELLI.
427
terminate abruptly at one end, near the contours of the figures, so
as to produce a harsh and disagreeable effect. Perhaps it was some-
thing of this kind to which Vasari referred when he observed of
Sandro's engravings, ' che I'intaglio era mal fatto.' It measures
twenty inches in height, by fourteen inches in width.
Mr. Bartsch considers the above inscription as decisive of the
engraving in question being merely a copy of an ancient Floren-
tine print formerly preserved in the Museum Gualdi at Rome ; but
I think this by no means a necessary inference, and am rather of
opinion that the original, spoken of as existing in 1632 at Rome, was
the design, or rather the picture, from which Botticelli had engraved
the plate ; and that this plate having long laid neglected, perhaps in
some convent of the Franciscan order, Pope Urban VIII. hearing of
it, might, in 1632, give directions that it should be republished. I
am, indeed, the more inclined to believe such to have been the
case, because Botticelli appears often to have employed himself in
painting similar representations of religious mysteries, in composi-
tions of numerous figures on a small scale; and because, in its style
of execution, the print in question, so far from having the appear-
ance of a modern copy, bears the strictest resemblance to many
known Florentine engravings of the fifteenth century.
This plate, if I am right in the opinion that it is the true one, and
not a copy, must, according to Bartsch, have been engraved between
the years 1470 and 1480. He informs us that he collects thus much
from the Annates Minorum, seu trium ordinum a S. Fransisco institu-
torum, by the father Luc Wadding. Romae, 1735. Vol. xiii. p. 456,
No. XI. where the author speaks of this ancient engraving* as being
preserved in the collection of rarities appertaining to his order. Fra
Marco, Mr. Bartsch adds, died in 1496.
* There is, unfortunately, no copy of this plate itself, and not an impression from it
work of Wadding, in the library of the only, might have been preserved, in the time
British Museum, and, consequently, I have of the writer, amongst the valuables of the
no opportunity of referring to it; else I should convent to which he belonged,
hope to find, upon examination, that the
3 i 2