The Visitation

Etching, about 1550, signed at lower center.

After Francesco Salviati. A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the platemark, small repairs and a central fold, generally in very good conditions.

As rightly pointed out by Adam Bartsch, etching lines in some places are not well recorded, so many impressions to be determined in print defects. This example shows a few lines retouched to old ink , not particularly unusual to find in the works of Passarotti. The engraving reproduces a fresco by Francesco Salviati (1538) preserved in St. Giovanni Decollato in Rome. From the same fresco Giorgio Ghisi produces an engraving around 1540. The work by Passarotti is, however, much more faithful to the original.

It is possible that for etching the artist was based on direct observation of the fresco in Rome around 1550, or has served as a preparatory drawing by the same Salviati. In 1986, Annamaria Petrioli Tofani has published, among others, a preparatory drawing in the Uffizi as Salviati for the fresco. This is the only work of Passarotti in which it is expressly declared dependency on another work .

This peculiarity can be explained in two ways: the nature of the model, a famous Roman fresco, widely praised by Vasari , or obeyed the request of a customer . In several sources it should be noted that the work of Salviati was engraved in copper, without indicating the name of the artist, "at the expense of Agostino Lacchetti " which , however, are not known news .