Ventura Salimbeni

This rare and exceptionally impressive print, the outstanding features of which are its monumental format and technical finesse, is considered to be the undisputed masterpiece in Salimbeni’s printed oeuvre. Bartsch records a small group of seven etchings produced between 1589 and 1594, The Baptism of Christ being the earliest work by the Sienese master and a powerful illustration of his artistic ambitions. The etching is distinguished by the masterful, astonishingly free technique that produces subtle transitions. The numerous classical-style buildings in the background and the hilly landscape beyond have been sketched with rapid, precise strokes of the needle. The artist makes skilful use of stage biting to create a shimmering chiaroscuro and richly varied linework. The pioneering example of Federico Barocci must have set new standards in this respect. Also worthy of special mention is Salimbeni’s highly original iconography. The youths and adult men bathing in the nude are shown from behind in very different poses, thereby injecting into the sacred event an everyday, almost profane element of extraordinary vitality. Salimbeni undoubtedly had in mind the bathing soldiers in Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina, a work that was well known thanks to the famous engraving by Agostino Veneziano (Bartsch XIV, 318, 423). In stylistic respects, however, the figures are very close to the nude drawings by Salimbeni that have survived. 

The inscription names the artist as the inventor and publisher of the composition. However, the fact that Ambrogio Brambilla’s monogram is visible at the bottom right probably indicates that the latter provided Salimbeni, who lacked experience as an etcher, with the requisite technical assistance in preparing the etching ground and monitoring the etching process, while Salimbeni himself was responsible for the drawing (Sue Welsh Reed, "Ventura Salimbeni", in: Italian Etchers of the Renaissance and Baroque, Boston 1989, cat. no. 45, pp. 98–100). A fine, nuanced and subtly differentiated impression with the framing line. Several flattened horizontal and vertical folds on the verso, barely visible on recto; soiling and scattered foxing on the verso, two skilfully repaired tears along the right edge, other minor repairs, otherwise in good condition, also in view of the size of the sheet.

9.500 €