About this Item
Etching with engraved portrait, image 325 × 479 mm (to framing lines), plate 330 × 485 mm, the full sheet 498 x 697 mm (with 27 mm additional folded self-stub for binding), on laid paper with watermark (on left framing line at center, as viewed through verso) the letter F with an indistinct letter C to its right, obscured by the image. An early definitive first state impression, in fine condition, without foxing or soiling (saving one slight splotch in the left margin and slight darkening along the left edge of the sheet) and with only a vestige of the original drying fold in the center of the sheet. Title-plate to the series, festooned with garlands, Marieschi's portrait head within an elaborate rococo frame supporting putti holding a painter's brushes and palette and an architect's triangle, the title lettered below in a cartouche bordered with elaborate rococo motifs: MAGNIFICENTIORES SELECTIORESQUE URBIS VENETIARUM PROSPECTUS / quos olim / MICHAEL MARIESCHI VENETUS PICTOR, ET ARCHITECTUS / IN PLERISQUE TABULIS DEPINXIT. / nunc uero ab ipsomet acurate delineante, incidente, tijspisque mandante, / iterum in sexdeum æreis tabulis in lucem æduntur / VENETIJS MDCCXLI / cum Excellmi: Senatus permissu ac priuil: Along the bottom of the plate the lettering continues: Venduntur in uico Sancti Lucæ / apud eumdem Auctorem Venetijs. Other than the portrait, this title-plate was designed and etched by Marieschi himself ("vero ab ipsomet acurate delineante, incidente"). The engraved portrait was drawn by Angelo Trevisani and engraved by Carlo Orsolini (lettered in the frame: "Anzolo Trivisan Deliniaui. / Carlo Orsolini scupis."). The series of 22 plates, comprising the title-plate, a dedication plate and 20 views of Venice (4 etched after Marieschi's death), has been most recently catalogued by Federico Montecuccoli degli Erri and Filippo Pedrocco, Michele Marieschi: La vita, l ambiente, l opera (Milan: Bocca Editori, 1999), nos. 1 (this plate) through 22. Montecuccoli degli Erri grades the first state impressions of the present plate by the progressive wear in the ruled guide lines for the lettering at the bottom of the plate and a progressive weakness in the cross-hatching in the tip of the upper right corner of the image. He considers that examples of this plate with manuscript corrections to the lettering are "rara prova anteriore al 1o stato." Such examples include those held by Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts (1963.30.36267) and Bibliothèque nationale de France ("BnF") (département Estampes et photographie, PET FOL-VF-81, a Royal volume). In both these examples the guide lines are continuously visible across all the letters, and the cross-hatched lines in the upper-right corner show only the hint of beginning weakness. By comparison, the guide lines in the present example print more intermittently and less clearly, and the weakness in the cross-hatching at upper right has spread downward adjacent the top part of the garland and a bit outward across the top as well. That said, the comparison of the quality of printing in the present example and these other two is telling. The very soft modeling in the portrait head is closely comparable among the three. The soft shading in the cheeks, for example, is subtly better in the Achenbach Foundation example than the BnF example, and in turn the BnF example subtly exceeds the present example in the same regard. The differences, nevertheless, between the present example and the BnF example are so subtle as not to be immediately significant. Further, the clarity of the printing of the putti adjacent the portrait in the present and BnF examples appears quite equal. Thus the present example, probably printed by 1744 after Marieschi's death in 1743, may be graded a superb early impression, a fair match for any other definitive first state impression, such as, for example, the superb stand-alone impression also held by BnF (SNR-3 [Marieschi, Michele]). Seller Inventory # ABE-1536711977038
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