Giovanni Battista d'Angolo

This graceful and suggestive composition, unknown to both Bartsch and Passavant, is recorded in Julius Meyer’s Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon under Giovanni Battista d’Angolo, where it is described as “unrecorded”. Battista’s later prints are distinguished by stylistic influences of diverse origin, a circumstance which often renders precise attribution problematic.

The present, eminently rare sheet is executed in a finely detailed, meticulous manner characteristic of Venetian print production in the second half of the Cinquecento. A playful, anecdotal touch is supplied by the small Cupid, ascending a crooked tree trunk and surveying the erotic scene from above. The accompanying Latin octet alludes to the ardour inflaming the two protagonists. Such witty commentary is typical of the popular genre prints that Venetian publishers such as Ferrando Bertelli, Domenico Zenoi and Niccolò Nelli successfully disseminated. A very fine, strong impression, printed with a delicate veil of tone; with margins. Minor discoloration, minor defects in the margins, otherwise in very good condition.
 

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