LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Engraving

Size Notes:

diameter

Provenance:

Ex-collection M. H. Grosjean-Maupin; his sale Drouot, Paris, March 27, 1958, lot 98 (in the original mat). A superb, dark and well-inked impression of this exceedingly scarce, early engraving. The authenticity of this engraving was confirmed verbally by Charles Winling, Cabinet Rothschild, Paris; and Maxime Préaud, Chief Curator of Prints, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, in 2008 (the Parisian publisher Amand-Durand made photogravure reproductions of several other engravings in this series, from impressions in the Rothschild collection, but not Hind 24 or 25, see lot 58). This is one of 24 Fine-Manner engravings from the so-called Otto Prints series created in Florence during the mid-1400s and now attributed to Baccio Baldini, a goldsmith and engraver likely associated with the workshop of the great Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). These passed through the collection of the Leipzig connoisseur Ernst Peter Otto (1724-1799), hence their name. According to Hind, these tondo (or circular designs) were all, "Destined for the same use, that is the decoration of the covers of round or oblong toilet-boxes or work-boxes for ladies. " Baldini (circa 1436–1487) was noted in passing by the 16th century artist/art historian Giorgio Vasari, who mentioned him as a Florentine goldsmith lacking disegno or the ability to conceive original designs and therefore relied on the work of Botticelli. Nevertheless, some 100 different engraved subjects have to date been attributed to Baldini. Working during the mid-1400s, he was at the forefront of the innovative engraving technique, transforming the art from the goldsmith's craft with incised designs decorating designs on silver and gold obejects to printing from engraved, inked plates onto sheets of paper as a means of multiplying and further distributing their work, increasing its commercial viability. We have located only two other impressions of this subject in public collections (Rothschild Collection, Musée du Louvre, Paris; and the British Museum, formerly in the Otto Collection. On the latter, the blank shields in the upper part of the composition have been filled in with pen and ink additions; the one on the left with the badge--six palle of the Medici, not used by them until 1465; the one on the right possibly with a heraldic arms belonging to Austria, according to Hind; both with an added ornamental border). Hind 24