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124
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FRANCO, Battista (c. 1510–1561).
See original version (Italian)
124
-
FRANCO, Battista (c. 1510–1561).
See original version (Italian)
Estimate €600 - €1,000
Voluntary lot
Description
FRANCO, Battista (c. 1510–1561). Six animals, including two lions, a tiger, a leopard, a griffin and a goat. Venice, c. 1530–1561.
A rare engraving by Battista Franco, with no recorded auction appearance (RBH), in the first of two states, prior to the addition of the artist’s name. Franco, a Venetian painter, draughtsman and printmaker, was among the most original exponents of Italian Mannerism. Trained in the Venetian art world and active in Rome, Urbino and Venice, he developed a distinctive style strongly influenced by Michelangelo, whose anatomical monumentality he also incorporated into his graphic work. This print reflects the growing sixteenth-century interest in the observation of nature and the depiction of animals, which increasingly served as a source of motifs for painters, printmakers and decorators. Characterised by pronounced plasticity and vigorous hatching, the figures reveal Franco’s highly personal interpretation of mid-sixteenth-century Roman printmaking.
Etching and engraving (340 × 495 mm), second state of two (central fold mark, a few small losses), mounted on an 18th-century sheet bearing an early collector’s inscription, ‘Battista Franco fece dal antico’, and early collection number ‘N 233’. (1)
See original version (Italian)
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Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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