SERMARTELLI, Michelangelo - Lot 13

SERMARTELLI, Michelangelo Alcune composizioni di diversi autori in lode del ritratto della Sabina, Scolpito in Marmo dall'Eccellentissimo M. Giovanni Bologna, posto nella piazza del Serenissimo Grand Duca di Toscana Florence, Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1583 ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS IN THE HISTORY OF SCULPTURE: THE ABDUCTION OF THE SABINA AROUSED IMMEDIATE ADMIRATION. GIAMBOLOGNA'S FAMOUS SCULPTURE HAD NO NAME UNTIL IT WAS DESCRIBED IN THE POEMS OF THIS BOOK. BERNARD MALLE'S ORIGINAL EDITION Small in-4 (221 x 159 mm). Wood-engraved Medici coat of arms printed on title page, wood-engraved bands, historiated initials or initials with foliate decoration, and wood-engraved culs-de-lampe. CONDITION: first quire, that of the preface, in FIRST CONDITION with misprints corrected in brown ink and found corrected on the British Library copy, a variation in condition hitherto unreported by bibliographies COLLATION: *6 A-F4 G2 (*6v and G2 blank, as appropriate): (4) ff., 50 pp., (1) f. ILLUSTRATION: 3 full-page printed woodcuts: one depicts a famous engraved view of the Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio, and on the following two pages two views of the Sabine observed from two different angles nineteenth-century binding. Bis paper boards, muted spine, untrimmed. PROVENANCE : Bernard Malle (stamp) Minor scattered stains, small old marginal restoration to last leaves. Giambologna (1529-1608) was Italy's greatest Mannerist sculptor. His monumental sculpture is considered by Henry Ogden Avery to be "the pinnacle of his career as a marble sculptor" (Avery Architectural Library). The work was unveiled on January 15, 1583 to unanimous acclaim. This colossal statue soon became known as the Abduction of the Sabine, as it did not yet bear a name. Bernardo Vecchietti (1514-1590), Giambologna's famous client, financed the publication of this book in October 1583. The book includes poems of praise, two full-page woodcuts of the sculptures, and a highly accurate view of the famous Piazza showing the new sculpture installed in situ alongside those already there. These poems, in praise of Giambologna's Abduction from Sabina, were written by Vincenzo Alamanni (1536-1590), the Medici ambassador to the French court, Bernardo Vecchietti, Bernardo Davanzati (1529-1606), translator of Tacitus, Cosimo Gaci (1550-1619), poet who translated the works of Teresa d'Ávila, Chevalier Gualtieri, poet from Arezzo, Piero di Gherardo Capponi, etc. Giambologna's work was intended to inspire writing. Such an approach to a sculptural work was completely new and called for a certain ingegno. Part of the spirit of this sculpture lies in the various possible interpretations of its complex execution. The statue was designed so that the scene depicted changed according to the angle from which it was viewed. BIBLIOGRAPHY : USTC 805784 -- Mortimer, Italian Books, II, 478 -- Cicognara, I, 1016 -- Thieme-Becker, IV, pp. 249, 252