Date of Printing: 1677 • Medium: Etching (B&W) • Subject Category: Mythological • Signed: Unsigned • Period Created: Baroque (1600 - 1699) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: 11.5 x 16 • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 25.5 x 20 • Style: Original Vintage • Print on Verso: Blank on verso • Condition: Excellent • Edition Type: Limited Edition • Paper Type: Woven • Framed: Print only
Original Engraving from Virgil's works by Pietro Santi Bartoli, 1677 from Virgil's "Aeneas". In Chapter XVIII on King Evander, Aeneas dreams of Father Tiber meeting a white sow with thirty young. Slight foxing on edges, and a slight brown mark on the sow, otherwise Excellent condition.
As a draughtsman, Bartoli reproduced the Codice Virgiliano (Rome, Vatican, Bib. Apostolica, Cod. Vat. 3867) in 55 plates (1677; Rome, Calcografia N.), commissioned by Cardinal Camillo Massimo. This same print is featured in the Vatican Museum collection, as well as the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris. Pietro Sante Bartoli who first created this work adorned with engravings, published in Rome in 1677. Bartoli, a native of Perugia, settled very young in Rome where he became the pupil of the painters Jean Lemaire (1598-1659) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). An archeologist, Bartoli is notably famous for his engravings of monuments, such as the bas-reliefs of the Trajane column, made according to his own drawings. This first edition presents fifty-five etchings, without the text of Virgil: fifty engravings are extracted from the Codex Vaticanus; Five are from the Codex Romanus and complete the missing scenes, especially those depicting the Bucolics. Bartoli, influenced by Baroque aesthetics, interprets the Virgilian scenes by adding accessories, for example, and by suppressing or modifying the inscriptions, such as is evident in this wonderful etching.
From Aeneid: "So the chiefs were gathered together, and much people with them, Mezentius, and Ufens, and Messapus being their leaders. They sent an embassy likewise to Diomed (for Diomed had built him a city in Italy, even Arpi), to tell him that Aeneas and the men of Troy were setting up a kingdom in these parts, and to bid him take counsel for himself. But Aeneas was much troubled at these things, and cast about in his mind where he should look for help. And while he meditated thereon he slept. And lo! in his dreams the god of the river, even Father Tiber, appeared to him. An old man was he, and clad in a blue linen robe, and having a crown of reeds upon his head. And he spake, saying, "Thou art welcome to this land, to which thou hast brought the Gods of Troy. Be not dismayed at wars and rumours of wars, nor cease from thy enterprise. And this shall be a sign unto thee. Thou shalt find upon the shore a white sow with thirty young, white also, about her teats. And it shall come to pass that after thirty years Hilus shall build him the White City. And now I will tell thee how thou shalt have victory in this war. Certain men of Arcadia, following their king, Evander, have built a city in this land, and called its name Pallantium. These wage war continually with the Latins. To them therefore thou must go, making thy way up the stream of the river. Rise therefore, and offer sacrifice to Juno, appeasing her wrath. And to me thou shalt perform thy vows when thou shalt have prevailed. For know that I am Tiber the river, and that of all the rivers on earth none is dearer to the Gods."