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Welcome to Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
120 Main Street, Upton MA 01568-6193; 800-809-3343; email: spaightwood@gmail.com
You can follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/andrew.weiner.16
and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spaightwood-Galleries-Inc/122951564441757
Diana Scultori, Elisabetta Sirani, and Magdalena de Passe:
Three Renaissance Printmakers
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The study of women artists of the Renaissance is still in its early years, just barely out of infancy. In their path-breaking exhibition and study, Women Artists 1550-19550 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977), Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin devoted 16 pages to women artists from the 15th century to the end of the 17th century. Harris quotes a 1521 entry by Albrecht Dürer in his Journal of his Trip to the Netherlands that presents what might justly be said to present the minority position: "Master Gerard, the Illuminator, has a daughter about eighteen years old called Susanna. She made an illumination of the Savior, for which I paid one guilder. It is a great marvel that a woman can do so much" (p. 25). In a 2007 exhibition of Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque (Washington DC: National Museum of Women in the Arts), the editors, Elizabeth S. G. Nicolson, Rebecca Price, Jane McAllister, and Virginia Karen I. Peterfreund, offer a feast: eight essays on Italian Women Artists of the period and works by seventeen of them. Yet there were clearly many in the Renaissance who would have begrudged us this feast. Ann Sutherland Harris begins her essay by quoting Bernini's account of Pope Urban VIII about "girls who painted" : "that it was rare for them to do any good, as from the moment they began they got so much priase that they very early on had far too high an opinion of themselves. Anyway they could never draw as well as men, as it was against all propriety for them to draw from the nude; the best advice one could give to them was to choose only the best examples to copy" (p. 49). In these 255 pages of texts and illustrations, it is clear that Dürer was closer to the mark than Pope Urban VIII. Yet it is also clear that while many of these talented artists benefitted from the novelty of praiseworthy work by women artists, the numbers are a tiny fraction of the number of male artists working in Italy during the same period. It is also clear that having a father who was an artist available as a teacher was almost a pre-condition for success.
Our 2008 exhibition, Images of Women in Old Master Prints and Drawings / Images by Women in Old Master Prints and Drawings was reviewed by Jodi Cranston (Associate Professor, Art History, Boston University) in Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3 (2008), 309-318, in a very-thought provoking essay on the presentation of works of art that charcterized our show as one that explores "the discursive structures of gender in iconographic categories that were predominant in the early modern representations of women in graphic media. Images of heroines and worthy women, the Virgin, Eve, and Venus, among others, provided opportunities for considering the significance of prints within the context of reception and social history and without regard for aesthetic criteria" (309). While I would like to think that the prints and drawings in the show can make their own claims of aesthtic merit and that the delight the viewer can take from the works themselves is always available, especially when seen in a context akin, for the moment, to that in which they were originally presented, as works of art that make a claim upon the viewer's intellect and emotions and offer the poossibility of acquisition and future delights as they are studied over time in the privacy of the purchaser's own viewing space, can only help augment their own merit in the eye and mind of the viewer. The review reproduced three of the works in the show, an engraving by Diana Scultori and two drawings, one by Giulio Romano, with whose works Diana sometimes worked, and Federico Zuccaro, one of which, the Zuccaro drawing of The Lamentation, will shortly be on display again in our next show, opening 28 July 2010 (the other two were sold before the show ended).
We are pleased to present ten works by three women, two Italians and one Netherlandish, all of whose fathers were their first teacher.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome)
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome) was the daughter of Giovanni Battista Scultori (or Mantovano). She studied with her father, an engraver who also taught Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582) and her brother Adamo (Mantua, 1530-1587). The Mantua art scene was dominated by Giulio Romano, painter and architect to the Duke of Mantua, and many of her prints are after drawings of Giulio's, apparently given to her so that she could engrave them and spread his fame as Marcantonio Raimondi had done for Giulio's old master, Raphael. The first state of her first print, The Continence of Scipio is dated 1542, so a birth date in the late 1520s is more likely. Gioconda Albricci suggests that Diana may have worked directly with Giulio and his influence both directly and indirectly is important especially in her early works. Since as chief assistant in Raphael's studio, he probably worked with Raphael's engravers, Marcantonio Raimondi, the Master of the Die, and Aenea Vico, it is not surprising that her early works after Giulio are similar in style. Bartsch lists 46 prints by Diana; Albricci ups the total to 62, In the second edition (1566) of his Lives of the Painters, Vasari talks about meeting Diana and her father on a trip to Mantua: "To Giovanbattista Mantovano, an engraver of prints and an excellent sculptor, whom we have spoken of, in the Vita of Giulio Romano and that of Marcantonio Bolognese, two sons were born, who engrave prints on copper divinely; and what is more wondrous, a daughter named Diana, who also engraves very well, which is a wondrous thing: and I who saw her, a very young and gracious young girl, and her works which are very beautiful, was astounded" (quoted in Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque, p. 126, in Jordana Pomeroy's discussion of Diana).
Selected Bibliography: Gioconda Albricci, "Prints by Diana Scultori," Print Collector 12 (1975), pp. 17-23 and 51-57; Suzanne Boorsch and John Spike, ed. The Illustrated Bartsch 31: Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century (NY: Abaris Books, 1986), pp. 239-289); Stefania Massari, Incisori Mantovani del '500: Giovan Battista, Adamo, Diana Scultori e Girogio Ghisi dalle collezioni del Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe e della Calcografia Nazionale (Rome: De Luca Editore, 1981); Elizabeth S. G. Nicolson, Rebecca Price, Jane McAllister, and Virginia Karen I. Peterfreund, ed. Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque (Washington DC: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2007).
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome) The Descent from the Cross (B. 7ii/ii, Massari 143, Albricci 36 ii/ii), engraving after her father, Gianbattista Scultori. A very good impression of this print from her Roman period (after 1575). Here in the second state (of two) after Diana added an affectonate inscription lower left: "IO BATTISTA MANTUANUS SCULPTOR & INUENTOR. DIANA FILIA INCIDEBAT." Trimmed on or within the platemark. Image size: 321x216mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome) The Resurrection (B. 10, Albricci 35), engraving after Giulio Romano. This is a reverse copy of her father's engraving (Bartsch 5). Inscribed lower right: "Iulius Mantuanus inv." Numbered n. 38 in pen just below the top right. Trimmed on or within the platemark. Image size: 235x168mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome) The Ascension (B. 11), engraving after Raffaellino da Reggio, 1581. Inscribed "Raphael Regieni Inventor. Diana incidebat Romae 1581." Our impression published in the 17th century by Orazio Pacifico. Old collection number (N. 11) written lower left. Image size: 232mm in diameter. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome), Menelaus holding the Body of Patroclus (B. 35; Stefania Massari, Incisori Mantovani del '500: Giovan Battista, Adamo, Diana Scultori e Girgio Ghisi [Rome: De Luca Editoree, 1980], 145a; and Stefania Massari, Giulio Romano pinxit et delieanvit: Opere grafiche autografe di collaborazione e bottega [Rome: Fratelli Palombi Editori, 1993], I44 iii/iv), engraving after Giulio Romano, c. 1570. Inscribed lower left: "Iulius Rom. in / Achilles defuctus" (while the mistitle "Achilles defu[n]ctus" is trimmed so that only the top part of the letters is visible, the first part of the inscription is clearly visible). The scene, based upon the painting designed by Giulio in the Sala di Troia in the Ducal Palace in Mantua differs significantly from the engraving: in the painting, the figure with a lion skin on his headalmost certainly Herculesis missing as the figures in the right rear background grouped around the standard held by Hercules, suggesting that Diana may have been working from a drawing by Giulio before the painting came into its final form. The painting can de seen in Frederick Hartt, Giulio Romano (New Haven: Yale University Press, 19558), Volume II, figure 392 or Massari Incisori Mantovani, plate 145. In the painting, two large trees mark the borders at left and right. Giovanni Albiricci, Prints by Diana Scultori (Print Collector 12 (1973), 17-23, 51-57), comments that "Quite rightly this work is looked upon as one of Diana's most appealing works due to the steadiness and the fineness of the engraved line. The centre of the composition is taken up by the youthful body of Patroclus being delivered from the fury of the Trojans, and the almost horizontal line of this figure being very clear, breaks the disordered movements of the fighters" (p. 18). Ours is a very good impression of the third state on laid paper trimmed within the platemark, but with the borders intact. There is a pressure mark top left-center and some surface soiling, both of which should clean up in restoration, if so desired. A rare and important work. Image size: 242x396mm. Price: SOLD.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome), The Continence of Scipio (B. 33), engraving after Giulio Romano, 1542. Inscribed lower left: "Liberalitatis et Continentiae Exemplum." After the fall of Carthage, Scipio Africanus, at the plea of Luceious, prince of the Celtiberians, a defeated enemy, returned his captive wife to her husband. The first state is dated 1542 and signed by Diana. Ours is a very good later impression with small margins. This is Diana's first print. Image size: 202x247mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome), The Continence of Scipio (B. 33), engraving after Giulio Romano, 1542. Inscribed lower left: "Liberalitatis et Continentiae Exemplum." After the fall of Carthage, Scipio Africanus, at the plea of Luceious, prince of the Celtiberians, a defeated enemy, returned his captive wife to her husband. The first state is dated 1542 and signed by Diana. Ours is a good later impression with small margins, formerly in the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden (Lugt 1618 & 1647) with their collector's mark in the lower right margin. This is Diana's first print. Image size: 202x247mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Diana Scultori (Mantua, before 1542-1612, Rome), Helen's servants carrying her belongings to Troy (B. 43, M. 137b), engraving after Giulio Romano, 1548. According to the inscription bottom center, it was printed by Iacomo de Rossi in Rome in the early 17th century. Our impression is from the 2nd of three states. One of Diana's earliest works, it was inspired by Giulio's painting of the abduction of Helen in the Ducal Palace at Mantua. One of her most praised works. Reproduced in Jodi Cranston's review of our exhibition, Images of Women in Old Master Prints and Drawings / Images by Women in Old Master Prints and Drawings published in Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2008, vol. 3, 309-318). A good Roman impression with margins. Image size: 136x164mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna, 1638-1665)
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Elisabetta was taught by her father, Giovanni Andrea Sirani, one of Guido Reni's pupils and later his principal assistant. According to Fiorella Frisoni, author of the essay on Sirani in Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque (Washington DC: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2007), because of the success of her early paintings, both large altarpieces, such as the canvas she painted for the Church of San Gerolamo della Certosa in 1658, and small-scale paintings of the Madonna and Child or the Holy Family that she began painting around 1660, Sirani "became known as a virtuosa, to be shown off to distinguished foreigners passing through Bologna, who did not fail to pay a visit to her studio" (p. 241) and patronized by aristocratic patrons, including members of the Farnese and Medici families, for whom she produced works including female saints or heroines like Judith or Portia. At her untimely death, she was called "the glory of the female sex, the gem of Italy, and the sun of Europe" by Carlo Malvasia, her patron and first biographer in Felsina pitrice (1678, as quoted in the Dictionary of Art by Laura Jacobus, 28: 787-88). In addition to her paintings, she was a fluent draftsman and a distinguished etcher.
Selected Bibliography: J. Bentini, V. Fortunati, ed. Elisabetta Sirani "pittrice eroina" 1638-1665 (Bologna, 2004); Fiorella Frisoni, "La vera Sirani," Paragone 29 (1978), 3-18; Adelina Modesti, Elisabetta Sirani: Una Virtuosa del Seicento Bolognese (Bologna: Editrice Compositori, 2004); Elizabeth S. G. Nicolson, Rebecca Price, Jane McAllister, and Virginia Karen I. Peterfreund, ed. Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque (Washington DC: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2007). Her prints can be found in John T. Spike, ed. The Illustrated Bartsch 42: Italian Masters of the Seventeenth Century: Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Simone Cantarini, Giovanni Andrea Sirani, Elisabetta Sirani, Lorenzo Loli, Monogrammist CpP, Giovanni Battista Bolognini, Luigi Scaramuccia, Matteo Borboni, Francesco Providoni, Domenico Ambrogi, called Menghino del Brizio, Pier Francesco Mola, Giovanni Battista Mola, Flaminio Torri, Domenico Santi, called Il Mengazzino, Domenico Maria Canuti, Alessandro Badiale, Antonio Triva, Girolamo De' Rossi, Giovanni Battista Zani, Lorenzo Tinti, Giacomo Gallinari, Gerolamo Scarsello, Pietro Bettini, Antonio Maria Monti, Alessandro Grimaldi, Benedetto Gennari, Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (NY: Abaris Books, 1981), 115-126.
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Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna, 1638-1665), St. Eustace (B. 10 ii/ii). Original etching, 1655. Spike describes this etching as "among the most beautiful of Elisabetta Sirani's oeuvre" (p. 124). I would drop the qualifier: her St. Eustace, the knight who goes hunting for deer and instead is caught by his mystical vision of the crucified Christ on the deer's antler, strikes me as unquestionably the most beautiful of her ten etchings and the only one for which demand was high enough that a copy was called for. This is the finished state, retouched by Sirani in "many" places according to Spike. A very fine impression on laid paper with thread margins all around. Old horizontal crease visible from the verso. Image size: 287x188mm. Price: SOLD.
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Magdalena de Passe (Cologne ?1596- 1638 Utrecht)
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The daughter and sister of artists, Magdalena was trained by her father. Crispin de Passe I was an engraver, print publisher, draftsman, and painter who produced many prints as well as two sons and a daughter who were also artists. Magdalena, his second child, "produced relatively little, but her work is of high quality. . . . Her work is delicate but powerful with effective use of chiaroscuro" according to the article in the Grove Dictionary of Art (24: 236). Her contributions to the series on the Sibyls, engraved after her father's drawings in 1617, are of high quality.
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Magdalena de Passe (Cologne, ?1596- 1638 Utrecht), Sibylla Hellespontaica. Inscribed in the plate lower right, "Crisp. Pass. inv. et excu: et huis fila Magd. sculp." One of a series of Sibyls executed 1617. Thread margins on all sides. A very fine impression of this beautiful print. Printed on laid paper with a large watermark. She and her brother Willem were in England during the early 1620s. Image size: 264x193mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Magdalena de Passe (Cologne, ?1596- 1638 Utrecht), Sibylla Europaeea. Inscribed in the plate lower right, "Crisp. Pass. inv. et excudet Magd Pass: sculp." One of a series of Sibyls executed 1617. Thread margins top and sides, trimmed within platemark at bottom; light staining in text area lower right. A very rich impression of this beautiful print. Printed on laid paper with a large watermark. She and her brother Willem were in England during the early 1620s. Image size: 266x192mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
To purchase, call us at 1-800-809-3343 (1-508-529-2511 in Upton MA & vicinity) or send an email to spaightwood@gmail.com.
We accept AmericanExpress, DiscoverCard, MasterCard, and Visa.
We also accept wire transfers and paypal.
For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.
All works are sold with an unconditional guarantee of authenticity (as described in our website listing).
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Visiting hours: Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday noon to 6:00 pm and other times by arrangement.
Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.
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