ANONYMOUS NORTH ITALIAN, XV CENTURY. THE SUN.
FROM THE TAROCCHI PRINTS (E Series)
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
ANONYMOUS NORTH ITALIAN, XV CENTURY. ANGEL OF
THE EIGHTH SPHERE. FROM THE TAROCCHI PRINTS
(E Series)
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Gentleman is the fifth in order in the first group of the Sorts and Conditions of Men, and is from the so-called E series (claimed by Sir Sidney Colvin and Mr. Arthur M. Hind, of the British Museum, to be the earlier of the two sets). The sequence runs: (1) The Beggar, (2) The Servant, (3) The Artisan, (4) The Merchant, (5) The Gentleman, (6) The Knight, (7) The Doge, (8) The King, (9) The Emperor, (10) The Pope.
Clio is the ninth of the Muses and is from the S series (placed first in point of time, by Kristeller, and about ten years later than the E series, by the British Museum authorities).
The Sun naturally finds his place in the group of Planets and Spheres. There is a delightful and childish touch in the way in which Phæton is pictured as a little boy falling headlong into the river Po, which conveniently flows immediately beneath him. To this group belongs likewise the Angel of the Eighth Sphere, the Sphere of the Fixed Stars, one of the loveliest prints in the entire set, both in arrangement and in execution.
Nothing could be in greater contrast to the gracefulness of such a print as the above than the Battle of Naked Men by Antonio Pollaiuolo, “the stupendous Florentine”—if one may borrow Dante’s title; but, for the moment, we will hold Pollaiuolo and his one engraving in reserve while we glance at the work of Christofano Robetta, who, born in Florence in 1462, was consequently the junior of Pollaiuolo by thirty years. As an engraver, Robetta is inferior to the anonymous master to whom we owe the E series of the Tarocchi prints. His style is somewhat dry, and the individual lines are lacking in beauty; but his plates have that indefinable and indescribable fascination and charm which is the peculiar possession of Italian engraving and of the Florentine masters in particular. The shaping influences which determined his choice and treatment of subject are Botticelli, and, in a much larger measure, Filippino Lippi, though only in a few cases can he be shown to have worked directly from that painter’s designs. The Adoration of the Magi is obviously inspired by Filippino Lippi’s painting in the Uffizi, though whether Robetta actually worked from the painting itself, or, as seems more probable, translated one of Filippino’s drawings, is an interesting question. The fact that the engraving is in reverse of the painting proves nothing; but there are so many points of difference between them—notably the introduction of the charming group of three angels above the Virgin and Child—that one can hardly think Robetta would have needlessly made so many and important modifications of the painting itself, if a drawing had been available. It is interesting, though of minor importance, that the hat of the King to the right, which lies on the ground, is copied in reverse from Schongauer’s Adoration, and that the Allegory of the Power of Love, one of Robetta’s most charming subjects, is engraved upon the reverse side of the plate of the Adoration of the Magi, the copper-plate itself being now in the Print Room of the British Museum. Whether the Allegory of Abundance is entirely Robetta’s, or whether the design was suggested by another master’s painting or drawing, can be only a matter of conjecture. It shows, however, so many of the characteristics which we associate with his work that we may give him the benefit of the doubt and consider him as its “onlie begetter.”