Descrittione de gli apparati fatti in Bologna per la venuta di N.S. Papa Clemente VIII. Con gli disegni de gli archi, statue, & pitture. Dedicata a gli Ill.mi Sig. del Reggimento di Bologna

Autore: BENACCI, Vittorio (d. 1629)

Tipografo: Vittorio Benacci

Dati tipografici: Bologna, 1598


GUIDO RENI'S FIRST ETCHINGS

 

4to (223x160 mm). [8] leaves and [8] plates, of which 2 are folding, designed and etched by Guido Reni. Signatures: A-B4. On the title page engraved arms of the city of Bologna. Woodcut initials. Modern stiff vellum with overlapping edges, red edges. Three heads and two jars drawn in red pencil by a contemporary hand on the verso of a plate. At l. A2 a contemporary hand has written a few lines to the epitaph dedicated to Clemens VIII, adding a reference to his death occurred in 1605. A different slightly later hand has added, on the last leaf verso, this long note: “fu giudicato il valore de velipassare 40m scudi d'oro / venne sua B.ne da Cento sino a Bologna per i campi havendo / il Regimento fatto fare una strada per mezzo de Periti, la quale / fu molto commoda per tutti essendo la pubblica cosi' cattiva per / le pioggie cadute che non si poteva andarvi. / Sua B.ne dono' a' Paggi che lo servirono nel tempo che / dimoro' in Bologna 1000 scudi d'oro che sono 75000 / de quattrini”. Traces of a paper strip removed from the title page. Four plates slightly trimmed in the bottom edge. A very good copy on thick paper.

 

EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION (it was reprinted in 1599, with an additional plate showing a triumphal arch erected outside of Bologna and not described in the text, and, later on by Giuseppe Longhi under the title ‘Dissegni degl'apparati...').  When Pope Clement VIII visited Bologna for three days (starting on November 27, 1598) on his return trip to Rome after a long stay in Ferrara, which had again politically and economically been reintegrated into the Church State, several triumphal arches and some festival architecture were established. On the one hand, one wanted to pay homage to the Pope, but on the other, one wanted to point to the independence of the city of Bologna.

“Il libro contiene una descrizione degli apparati effimeri eretti per allestire i festeggiamenti in onore del pontefice, che il 27 novembre 1598 fece la sua entrata solenne in città da Porta Galliera. La tradizione di origine quattrocentesca di accogliere gli ospiti illustri con l'erezione di archi di trionfo e con l'abbellimento della scena urbana è qui mirabilmente presentata nell'armonica alternanza dei testi descrittivi posti a fronte delle illustrazioni incise a tutta pagina. Esse restituiscono pienamente l'aspetto delle strade che si snodano dal confine del territorio bolognese (il primo arco, in verzura, si trovava ancora in mezzo alla campagna) lungo l'itinerario che il pontefice percorse per arrivare nel centro della città. Dopo una sosta in S. Pietro, sempre seguendo via Galliera che nel percorso antico continuava anche nell'odierna via Manzoni e nell'ultimo tratto di via Indipendenza, il corteo pontificio giunse in Piazza Maggiore, dove era stata eretta per l'occasione una colonna che supportava gli spettacoli pirotecnici che ebbero luogo durante il soggiorno di Clemente VIII. Il testo integra i dati iconografici: ci informa ad esempio, con riferimento all'illustrazione qui esposta, che ‘Uscendo da questo Arco si vedeva una prospettiva grande poco lontana…Era ella compartita in cinque parti; nelle tre di mezzo eran tre quadroni di pittura finti a bronzo, & le due dai lati fingevano due porte per passare in strade vicine'. I soggetti dei dipinti riguardavano I successi politici del papato: nel quadro centrale era raffigurata la benedizione di Clemente VIII al nuovo Re di Francia Enrico IV ‘habilitandolo alla Corona di quel Regno'; nel quadrone di sinistra era l'entrata del Papa in Ferrara, avocata alla Santa Sede dopo la morte dell'ultimo duca, Alfonso II; in quello a destra la pace tra Francia e Spagna. Come risulta da un bando promulgato per l'occasione, anche i cittadini vennero chiamati a dare il loro contributo per migliorare l'aspetto della ‘strada di Galiera' con una pulizia straordinaria ed esponendo ornamenti quali arazzi, tappeti, addobbi in seta, o quadri e pitture di soggetto religioso” (C. Bersani & V. Roncuzzi, eds., Bologna nei libri d'arte dei secoli XVI-XIX, Bologna, 2004, p. 77-78).

Guido Reni left Ludovico Carraci's academy by 1598, after an argument with the latter over unpaid work. What is certain is, that already on that date, at the age of twenty-three, he presented himself to the establishes Bolognese masters as a possible rival and antagonist. In competition with Bartolomeo Cesi and with the same Ludovico Carracci he managed to obtain the commission for the decoration of the facade of the Palazzo del Senato on the occasion the Pope's entry. The painting, executed in oil on the wall, has been lost. Remembrance of it can be seen in the first print of Reni's series, depicting the triumphal arches and statues built for the event. The etchings of the present work mark the beginning of Reni's career as a print maker.

 “Kunsthistorisch kommt diesen Illustrationen jedoch eine besondere Bedeutung zu, da sie gemeinsam mit der Beschreibung einen ikonographischen Schlüssel darstellen, wie Festapparate zu lesen waren, bzw. mit welchen Allusionen und Symbolen man weltliche wie kirchenpolitische ‘Werbung', machte” (V. Birke, ed., Guido Reni und der Reproduktionsstich, Wien, 1988, p. 23).

Guido Reni (1575–1642), the most famous Italian artist of his generation, was born at Calvenzano near Bologna. His father was a musician of repute. At a very early age Guido displayed a determined bent towards the fine arts. He was only nine years of age when Denis Calvaert took notice of him, received him into his academy of design in Bologna and rapidly brought him forward, so that by the age of thirteen he had already attained marked proficiency. Soon after, he was joined in that studio by Francesco Albani and Domenichino. When Reni was about twenty years old, the three Calvaert pupils migrated to the rising rival studio, named Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of the ‘newly embarked', or progressives), led by Lodovico Carracci. By late 1601, Reni and Francesco Albani had moved to Rome to work with the teams led by Annibale Carracci in fresco decoration of the Farnese Palace. During 1601–1604, his main patron was Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondrati. By 1604–1605, he received an independent commission for an altarpiece of the Crucifixion of St. Peter. After returning briefly to Bologna, he went back to Rome to become one of the premier painters during the papacy of Paul V (Borghese); between 1607–1614, he was one of the painters most patronized by the Borghese family. Returning to Bologna permanently after 1614, Reni established a successful and prolific studio there. He was commissioned to decorate the cupola of the chapel of Saint Dominic in Bologna's Basilica of San Domenico between 1613 and 1615. Leaving Bologna briefly in 1618, Reni traveled to Naples to complete a commission to paint a ceiling in a chapel of the cathedral of San Gennaro. However, in Naples, other prominent local painters, including Corenzio, Caracciolo and Ribera, were vehemently resistant to competitors, and according to rumor, conspired to poison or otherwise harm. He thereupon returned to Rome; but finally left that city abruptly, in the pontificate of Urban VIII, in consequence of an offensive reprimand administered to him by Cardinal Spinola for a never executed altarpiece for St. Peter's. In Bologna Guido lived in great splendor, and established a celebrated school, numbering more than two hundred scholars. He then alternately painted in different styles but displayed fewer eclectic tastes than many of Carracci's trainees. By the 1630s, Reni's painting style became looser, less impastoed, and dominated by lighter colors. A compulsive gambler, Reni was often in financial distress despite the steady demand for his paintings. According to his biographer Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Reni's need to recoup gambling losses resulted in rushed execution and multiple copies of his works produced by his workshop. Among the paintings of his last years are many unfinished works. He died in debt but was buried with great pomp in the church of S. Domenico. Beyond Italy, Reni's influence was important in the style of many Spanish Baroque artists, such as Ribera and Murillo. But his work was particularly appreciated in France -Stendhal believed Reni must have had ‘a French soul' - and influenced generations of French artists such as Le Sueur, Le Brun, Vien, and Greuze; as well as on later French Neoclassic painters (cf. E. Rossoni, Guido Reni, ‘sopra d'ogni altro famoso ed eccellente', in: “Ercole e Dejanira di Guido Reni dal Louvre di Parigi alla Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna”, M. Scalini, ed., Bologna, 2017, pp. 39-65).

The Benacci brothers, Giovanni Battista and Alessandro, started their activity as printer's in the middle of the sixteenth century. In 1558 the found an associate in the Venetian typographer Giovanni Rossi. Their collaboration lasted until 1562. In 1577 Giovanni Battista died and Alessandro continued the activity until his death in 1590. The press was then resumed by his son Vittorio, who had been collaborating with him for years. Vittorio not only was a skilled typographer and but also a man of a good literary culture, as the letters of dedication to some of his editions demonstrate. He succeeded his father also in the role of episcopal printer, and in 1598 the Senate granted him that of ‘stampatore camerale'. According to G. Fantuzzi, Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi, (Bologna, 1781), I, p. 61, he was also the editor of some ‘Reports' published by his typography (cf. P. Bellettini, La stamperia camerale di Bologna: Alessandro e Vittorio Benacci, 1587-1629, in: “La Bibliofilia”, XC/1, 1988, p. 21-53).

 

Edit 16, CNCE 5105; Universal STC, no. 813498; V. Birke, ed., The illustrated Bartsch, 40 (Commentary, part. 1, Formerly Volume 18/2, (New York, 1987), pp. 291-300; E. Cropper & L. Pericolo, Carlo Cesare Malvasia's Felsina pittrice: Lives of the Bolognese Painters, Volume 9, Life of Guido Reni, (Turnhout, 2019), II, 244-246; B. Michell, The Majesty of the State, (Firenze, 1986), p. 13; A. Sorbelli, Storia della stampa in Bologna, (Bologna 1929), p. 114; A. Stähler, ‘Perpetuall monuments': die Repra?sentation von Architektur in der italienischen Festdokumentation (ca. 1515-1640) und der englischen ‘court masque' (1604-1640), (Münster, 2000), p. 430; H. Watanabe-O'Kelly & A. Simon, Festivals and ceremonies, (London & NY, 2000), p. 127.


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