print
- Museum number
- 1864,1114.686
- Title
- Series: Etchings after Early Italian Masters
- Description
-
Frontispiece to the series of etchings after Italian Masters; a portrait of Giotto in a circle facing left flanked by two naked youths, the boy at left holding a baton (or rule) and the other a drawing of Giotto's Campanile, the lower section implements associated with the painters' craft, palette, brushes, a compass, etc
Etching
- Production date
- 1812-1814 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 189 millimetres
-
Height: 310 millimetres
-
Width: 198 millimetres (plate-mark (maximum))
-
Width: 500 millimetres (sheet)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The series consists of three portraits of Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi and Masaccio, and sixty-two numbered plates representing scenes after frescoes by early Italian masters from Giotto to Andrea Orcagna, and two views of the exterior of San Francesco in Assisi. In some of the plates details from different fresco cycles are shown together. Kubheil made the series in Berlin between 1812 and 1814 after he returned from Italy. In some cases the plates are inscribed with the production place 'Berlin'; in others they are not; however, it is reasonable to believe that they were published in Berlin.The BM series is bound in dark blue leather binding, with the short-title on the spine 'C. L. Kuhbeil. Etchings after Italian Masters'.
The scenes after frescoes and panels by Giotto and Giottino in San Francesco in Assisi and Santa Croce in Florence contains ten numbered plates (I to X) and 2 plates (XI and XII) of exterior views of San Francesco. Today the sacristy panels (now in Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence) are acknowledged to be by Taddeo Gaddi's, but through the nineteenth century writers followed the attribution to Giotto (see Andrew Ladis, 'Taddeo Gaddi. Critical Reappraisal and Catalogue Raisonné', London 1982, p.115.).
- The scenes after frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi and Buffalmacco in Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce in Florence contains twelve numbered plates (XIII to XXVII).
- The scenes after frescoes in San Clemente in Rome (plates XXVIII to XXXVI), which Kuhbeil attributed to Masaccio, are, in fact, acknowledged as Masolino da Panicale's (see Paul Joannides, 'Masolino in Rome, San Clemente and the Orsini Cycle', in 'Masaccio and Masolino. A Complete Catalogue', pp. 185-209, London 1993.)
Plate XXXVII represents a scene after a fresco attributed to Giotto in the church of St Francis of Assisi, which Kuhbeil attributed to Buffalmacco.
- The scenes after frescoes by Paolo Uccello in Santa Maria Novella in Florence contains three numbered plates (XXXVIII to XL).
- The scenes after frescoes by Bernardino Pinturicchio in Santa Maria degli Angeli near Assisi and in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome contains three numbered plates (XLI to XLIII).
- The scenes after frescoes by Andrea Orcagna (?) in San Benedetto a Subiaco contains nine numbered plates (XLIV to LIII).
- Plate LIV does not have an inscription for identification.
- The series with scene after frescoes by Andrea and Bernardo Orcagna and Benozzo Gozzoli in Campo Santo in Pisa contains seven numbered plates (LVI to LXII). Plate LVII also contains a study after a fresco in Santa Croce in Florence. The attribution of the frescoes in Pisa has been much disputed; while Vasari assigned them to Andrea Orcagna, modern scholars have attributed them to Buffalmacco. See Giorgio Vasari, 'Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori , scultori et architettori', 2 vols, I, Florence1568, p.182; Luciano Bellosi, 'Buffalmacco e il Trionfo della Morte', Turin 1974 and Gert Kreytenberg, 'Orcagna Ein universaller Künstler der Gotik in Florenz', Mainz 2000.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1864
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1864,1114.686
