Marcantonio Raimondi

Original engraving, monogrammed in plate; Bartsch XIV, 186.469; Landau-Parshall p. 100; 

Superb proof of a particularly significant print within the Ramondian corpus. In Italy, portraiture of figures not belonging to the nobility or the clergy was almost non-existent in the engraving art of the early 16th-century. It began to spread in northern Europe with the rise of a cultured and wealthy bourgeoisie attentive to the art of engraving, which could therefore express itself with greater autonomy and detached from commissions. The inking is very sharp and intense, and the paper, very fine, healthy and crisp, allows the subject to be read even on the verso, an indication of the precocity of the impression of the proof under examination. Complete and with a thread of margin all around. Very well preserved.

The close collaboration between Raphael and Raimondi, which began with the latter's arrival in the Eternal City in 1510, is well known. A skilful and fervent interpreter of Raphael's paintings, he was unfortunately unable to derive the well-deserved financial prosperity from them. Added to this was a succession of misfortunes that began with his imprisonment for carving lascivious drawings by Giulio Romano and continued with the enmity of Bandinelli, and became so infamous as to give rise to Malvasia's rumour that Marcantonio was assassinated by the purchaser of the copperplate with The Massacre of the Innocents for having transgressed his pledge not to make a copy. In fact, his business suffered a collapse during the sack of Rome in 1527, when he was forced to shell out a large sum to save himself and to pay for the damage to his workshop, as well as the loss of his pupil Marco Dente.

The artist then withdrew to Mantua and then to Bologna where he died 'little less than a beggar'; his branches eventually ended up in the hands of engraver-publishers and pupils, including Agostino Veneziano, who freely signed them with their own names. Aretino confirms that the artist had died by 1534.

Giovanni Filoteo Achillini was a 16th-century poet, man of letters and public man. Although many of his works have not come down to us, many testimonies of his work remain. A great traveller, he worked in many of the most important Italian cities of the time, but none surpassed his Bolognese origins. Here he held various public offices and achieved great fame. The press itself bears witness to this, as portraits were then almost exclusively reserved for aristocrats or members of the clergy. However, the portrait itself is not the only peculiarity, as the poet is depicted in a dynamic dimension, namely in the act of playing the vihuela. Between the viola and the guitar, this Spanish instrument spread so rapidly in 16th-century Europe that it eclipsed the lute as the most widely used instrument in just a few years. It is not difficult to imagine this as we know well the versatility that the guitar, granddaughter of the vihuela, has found in the last century, becoming by far the most played instrument in the world.