DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7598#0324
782
MARC ANTONIO RA1MONDI. [chap. ix.
from other wood and copper-plate engravings of Albert, is in-
deed certain: but it is equally certain that he abstained from so
doing in his copies of the Life of Christ above mentioned, which
are marked only with a small plain tablet, such as he affixed to
many of the engravings which he executed from the designs of
Raffaele and other masters, after his arrival at Rome. It is very
probable that one or two impressions of seventeen pieces of Durer's
series of 'the Life of the Madonna' found their way to Venice as early
as the year 1509, the same in which the work appears to have been
so far completed; and that Marc' Antonio, then resident in that city,
was struck with their beauty, and immediately purchased and
copied them; marking his plates, the better to deceive, with Albert's
cypher: and indeed this conjecture is so much strengthened by the
circumstance of Marc' Antonio having copied the first seventeen
pieces of the series only, and not the title, which was afterwards exe-
cuted, nor the two pieces of the series which hear date 1510, that I con-
sider its truth next to certain. That Durer, who enjoyed the especial
protection of the Emperor Maximilian, might be enabled, through
the Imperial Ambassador at Venice, to lay his complaints before the
government, and obtain the prohibition before stated, may, I think,
readily be imagined; and it cannot be denied, that the circumstance
of Marc' Antonio's having omitted to affix the mark* of Albert to
the copies which he afterwards made of the series of the 'Life of
Christ,' is strongly corroborative of the general truth of the story.
Were we to suppose that Marc' Antonio completed his copies of
both the sets of prints above mentioned, during his stay at Venice,
(a conjecture which should seem to accord sufficiently well with
the general tenor of Vasari's account), we could then hardly date
his departure from that city earlier than the middle of the year
1511. But a print, bearing date 1510, which he engraved of one of
the groups of the celebrated Cartoon of Pisa, by Michelangiolo,
* Albert Durer very commonly placed his in Marc' Antonio, who, if I mistake not, never
cypher upon a small tablet; and perhaps the marked his engravings in that manner, until
circumstance gave rise to the use of the tablet after he left Bologna.
MARC ANTONIO RA1MONDI. [chap. ix.
from other wood and copper-plate engravings of Albert, is in-
deed certain: but it is equally certain that he abstained from so
doing in his copies of the Life of Christ above mentioned, which
are marked only with a small plain tablet, such as he affixed to
many of the engravings which he executed from the designs of
Raffaele and other masters, after his arrival at Rome. It is very
probable that one or two impressions of seventeen pieces of Durer's
series of 'the Life of the Madonna' found their way to Venice as early
as the year 1509, the same in which the work appears to have been
so far completed; and that Marc' Antonio, then resident in that city,
was struck with their beauty, and immediately purchased and
copied them; marking his plates, the better to deceive, with Albert's
cypher: and indeed this conjecture is so much strengthened by the
circumstance of Marc' Antonio having copied the first seventeen
pieces of the series only, and not the title, which was afterwards exe-
cuted, nor the two pieces of the series which hear date 1510, that I con-
sider its truth next to certain. That Durer, who enjoyed the especial
protection of the Emperor Maximilian, might be enabled, through
the Imperial Ambassador at Venice, to lay his complaints before the
government, and obtain the prohibition before stated, may, I think,
readily be imagined; and it cannot be denied, that the circumstance
of Marc' Antonio's having omitted to affix the mark* of Albert to
the copies which he afterwards made of the series of the 'Life of
Christ,' is strongly corroborative of the general truth of the story.
Were we to suppose that Marc' Antonio completed his copies of
both the sets of prints above mentioned, during his stay at Venice,
(a conjecture which should seem to accord sufficiently well with
the general tenor of Vasari's account), we could then hardly date
his departure from that city earlier than the middle of the year
1511. But a print, bearing date 1510, which he engraved of one of
the groups of the celebrated Cartoon of Pisa, by Michelangiolo,
* Albert Durer very commonly placed his in Marc' Antonio, who, if I mistake not, never
cypher upon a small tablet; and perhaps the marked his engravings in that manner, until
circumstance gave rise to the use of the tablet after he left Bologna.