The Virgin and Child with the infant St John, surrounded by heads of angels

Etching, Signed in lower left 'Antonius Balestra in et fecit 1702'.

Example in the second state of two described by Bartsch, with the inscription Mater pulcrae dilectionis added at the bottom. The only known ante-litteram example is the one described by Bartsch; probably, therefore, this is a proof of the work, which is now known only through the second state.

Gioconda Albricci reduces to 10 the graphic corpus of Antonio Balestra; previous etchings attributed to him by Bartsch, Nagler and Bruillot are in fact derubricated and assigned to his pupil Pietro Rotari.

Balestra, a native of Verona, was a pupil of Carlo Maratta in Rome. A vast and well-informed contemporary literature, which often made use of information provided directly by the artist, and a group of autograph letters allow us to know not only the external events of Balestra's life, but also the principles by which he inspired all his artistic activity, which took place in a context of taste clearly marked by the Roman tradition, which he nevertheless interpreted with formal fluidity and fluency of Correggio's inspiration, reflecting those aspirations of his time that were decisive for the passage of taste from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century.

Rarely has an artist been so highly esteemed by his contemporaries as Balestra, whose classicizing painting in fact coincided with the dominant academic taste. Modern critics have instead given him a rather limiting judgment, recognizing more than a poetic validity a historical importance, as he contributed to introduce in the Veneto, by then closed in traditional forms improvincialite, the Roman culture, which did not fail to have reflections also in Piazzetta and in the young Tiepolo.

Beautiful proof, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the copperplate, in good condition. Rare.

Bibliografia

Albricci, G. (1982). CONTRIBUTI PER UN CATALOGO DELLE INCISIONI DI ANTONIO BALESTRA. Saggi e Memorie Di Storia Dell’arte, 13, p. 81-82, II/II; Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur (XXI.294.2); Maria Angela Novelli - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 5 (1963).