Wannenes Art Auctions
125
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FRANCO, Giacomo (1550–1620). A large sheet featuring over tw…
See original version (Italian)
125
-
FRANCO, Giacomo (1550–1620). A large sheet featuring over tw…
See original version (Italian)
Estimate €500 - €800
Voluntary lot
Description
FRANCO, Giacomo (1550–1620). A large sheet featuring over two hundred religious subjects, probably intended as designs for medals or rings. Venice, late 16th century.
A curious and previously unrecorded engraving by Giacomo Franco. Signed on the plate on the right, it bears on the left the inscription ‘In Venetia apresso Francescho di Medici, merscaro in Rialto’. Although the precise meaning of the term ‘merscaro’ remains unclear, it may have referred to a merchant specialising in small objects, probably made of metal. If so, the nature of the composition suggests that the sheet was conceived as an iconographic repertory for the production of devotional medals, rings or other small works of goldsmithing and bronze. The engraving comprises over two hundred small compositions depicting episodes from the life of Christ, symbols of the Passion, images of the Virgin Mary, saints and other subjects from the Christian tradition, often repeated with slight variations. A useful chronological clue is provided by the presence of the coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585), the only papal emblem depicted, enabling the sheet to be dated to the final decades of the sixteenth century.
Large engraved sheet (347 × 260 mm), subsequently mounted on 19th-century watermarked paper. (1)
See original version (Italian)
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Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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