Lot 48: Giuseppe Scolari (active circa 1592-1607) after Giovanni Antonio Licinio, Il Pordenone (1483-1539)

Giuseppe Scolari (active circa 1592-1607) after Giovanni Antonio Licinio, Il Pordenone (1483-1539)
Saint George and the Dragon (Dreyer 42; Rosand & Muraro 96; Landau P 61, Davis 43)
woodcut, around 1600, an extremely good impression of this monumental print, the extremely rare first state of two (Rosand and Muraro were able to locate only two impressions of this state, one in the Museo Civico, Bassano, the other in a private Venetian collection), with the line across the parallel hatching on the horse's neck, before the shading on the horse's chest is reduced in the second state, and before a plug is inserted at the lower edge (identified by Landau as later impressions), trimmed just inside the borderline, a flattened horizontal printer's crease at left touched in with pen and ink, a tiny made-up paper loss at the upper sheet edge at right, with a central horizontal drying crease, generally in very good condition
S. 524 x 356 mm.

G. Storck, Milan, 1798 (L. 2318), with his inventory no. 7923.
Unidentified, stamped letters vJ (not in Lugt) (possibly a code used by Storck).
Christie's, London, 24 June 1986, lot 156.

FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Traditionally thought to be after a composition by Titian, this large and dramatic woodcut is now recognised as being closely related to a lost fresco of Marcus Curtius (circa 1530-35) by Pordenone on the façade of the Palazzo d'Ana in Venice. Scolari changed the subject - known to us from chiaoscuro prints by Vicentino and Boldrini - from the Roman hero in an architectural setting into the Christian warrior-saint George in a dramatic rocky landscape. In so doing he added the dragon, and gave the saint a flamboyantly feathered contemporary headdress.

Scolari was one of the few printmakers of the time to cut his own blocks. His use of the burin allowed him to cut long, sweeping lines into the dark background. Effective though they undoubtedly are, these dramatic contours must have been extremely challenging to print, with utmost care necessary to avoid over-inking. The comparative lightness of the present impression is indicative of it being early, as freshly cut blocks tend to absorb a proportion of the ink. Over time, as the block becomes saturated, it tends to print more darkly. Moreover, the tremendous pressure to which the block is subjected during printing can cause the finer lines to 'spread' and lose their valuation, narrowing the interspersed white lines and making it more difficult to print without these lines 'filling-in'.

'In this striking print Scolari achieved full command, expressive as well as technical, of his graphic means. Utilizing both graver and the knife, he produced an image rich in textural variety and tonal contrast yet, at the same time, orchestrated with a dominant and unifying harmony; conception and execution, in fact, are one, part of the single process of realization.'
(David Rosand and Michelangelo Muraro, Titian and the Venetian Woodcut, International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington D.C., 1976.)

The impression supposedly in the first state offered in a continental European auction in July 2009 was, in fact, in the second state, with the shading on the horse reduced and the plug at the centre of the lower edge.