BOCCHI, Francesco - Lot 15

BOCCHI, Francesco Eccellenza della statua del San Giorgio di Donatello Scultore Fiorentino, Posta nella facciata di fuori d'Orsan Michele... Dove si tratta del Costume, della Vivacità & della Bellezza di detta Statua Florence, Giorgio Marescotti, 1584 A REVOLUTION IN ART HISTORY. THE FIRST MONOGRAPH DEVOTED TO A SINGLE WORK: DONATELLO'S SAINT GEORGE. VERY RARE ORIGINAL EDITION In-12 (153 x 100 mm). Wood-engraved headbands, initials and tailpieces. Marescotti's typographical mark printed on the title page. COLLATION: A-G8 CONTENTS: A1r title, A2r dedication Al Serenissimo Cosimo de Medici dated May 25, 1571, A4r second dedication All'Accademia fiorentina del disegno printed in italics, A6r Ragionamento di M. Francesco Bocchi sopra l'eccelenza del San Giorgio di Donatello, G6r Tavola delle cose notabili, che si contengono in questo Libro ITALIAN BINDING CIRCA 1800. Brown calf spine, vellum corners, purple marbled paper boards (slightly faded). Francesco Bocchi (1548-1618) was a writer of humble origins who was born and died in Florence. He was a tutor in the most prominent aristocratic families, such as the Bentivoglios and the Strozzi. In 1594, he published the first guide to the Medici city, entitled La Bellezza della città di Firenze. Bocchi's work on Donatello's San Giorgio (1415-1417) was almost certainly completed in 1571, as evidenced by the date of the dedication to Cosimo de' Medici; the second dedication dates from 1584, the year of publication. L'Eccellenza is presented as a commentary and reading of the passions expressed by this famous statue of Saint George, now housed in the Bargello Museum. According to Schlosser, this is Bocchi's earliest monograph dedicated to a specific work of art. Sculpture is no longer simply the reproduction of an ancient model, but the expression of a feeling. Bocchi borrows his hermeneutic vocabulary from rhetoric to consider the work in its three most prominent forms: expression of character, vivacity of features and simple beauty (costume, vivacità and bellezza). Donatello's Saint George thus becomes the purest symbol of the Italian Renaissance. BIBLIOGRAPHY : USTC 815020 -- Cicognara 3484 -- Th. Frangenberg, "The art of talking about sculpture: Vasari, Borghini, Bocchi", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 58, 1995, pp. 115-131 -- C. Hattendorff, "Francesco Bocchi on Disegno", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 55, 1992, p. 274, n. 18 -- S. Menchi, DBI XI (1969), pp. 72-74 -- not in Adams nor in BM Ital.