Beschreibung:

Exquisite Vases and Ewers. POLIDORO CALDARA, DA CARAVAGGIO. Raccolta di Vasi. Roma, Marco Sadeler excudit, 1605 Folio, mm. 276x270; Binding of eighteenth century, half calf and marbled boards, spine with 5 ribs with gilt title on label; 9 copper plates engraved 230x167 mm, Title page etched 270x178 mm. Second State. The designer\'s name appears, in arabesque types, on each plate, the name of the publisher, who worked in Rome is at the bottom right, the engraver is quoted in the Title Page, whose the full title is: Vasa in Polydoro Carauagino pictore antiquitatisq. imitator prestantiss. inuent. Egidius Sadeler S.C.M.tis sulptor in aes incidi iussit et edidit Pragae year 1605.Provenance: old stamp collection on the edge of title-page: S. in an oval. Bookplate “Biblioteca Duilio e Sonia de Polo Saibanti” pasted on inside cover. Bound with: SALVIATI, Francesco. Quattro disegni di coltelli. Roma, Marco Sadeler excudit, 1605 2 numbered copper plates, leaves mm. 372x260, engravings 246x115 mm. Second state. (1 volume)
Rare full set of beautiful vases drawn by Polidoro of Caravaggio. Are added to in this specimen the four knives drawn by Salviati. The plates are etched and engraved by Aegidius Sadeler British: “The vases are derived from a series that had been painted by Polidoro above the first floor windows of the Palazzo Milesi in the via della Maschera d'Oro in Rome. Polidoro designed and executed a whole series of elaborate painted schemes for the decoration of palace and house façades in Rome in the period 1520-27. They were painted in grisaille to imitate sculpture and reflected contemporary ideas about how such buildings would have been decorated in antiquity. The subject matter was intended to evoke the ancient world. Many of these frescoes became very famous and were much copied, not least because their position made them very vulnerable to the elements and their life-expectancy was short. Vasari mentioned the Palazzo Milesi decorations in particular with the highest praise, including the vases: 'con alcuni vasi d'oro contrafatti, con tante bizzarrie dentro, che occhio mortale non potrebbe imaginarsi altro ne più bello ne più nuovo' (Vasari-Milanesi V, p.149; the whole façade is shown in L. Ravelli, 'Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio', Bergamo, 1978, fig.667, p.369). Alberti did a considerable number of engravings after works by Polidoro. Marzio Milesi, the owner of the Palazzo Milesi was later to become a friend, and the engraver presented him with a set of the Vases (Petrucci, 1956, p.128).” The knives are drawn by the Florentine painter Francesco de 'Rossi called Cecchino, or Salviati, and are characterized by imaginative handles of mythological and grotesque taste. Aegidius Sadeler also known as Egidio or as Gilles, was a painter, printmaker and an important Mannerist, certainly the most important member of the dynasty of Sadeler. After moving to Cologne in childhood (about 1579), and then to Monaco of Bavaria (about 1588), travels to Italy, working in Rome in 1593, then to Verona and probably in Venice. After a journey to Naples, he moved to Prague in 1597, where he spent the rest of his life, mostly employed at the court of Rudolf II, with Bartholomeus Spranger, of which he became the best translator. About the Vasa: Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700, v. XXI, p. 79; The Illustrated Bartsch. Aegidius Sadeler II. Supplement. Part II, p. 291. About the Knives: Hollstein, v. XXI, p. 79; The Illustrated Bartsch. Aegidius Sadeler II. Supplement. Part II, p. 307. n. 418. The Lot is offered with a valid export license.