Set for La Sincerità Trionfante

Etching, 1638 circa, unlettered.

The beautiful etching is one of the five that enriched La sincerità trionfante overo L'erculeo ardire, a libretto written by Ottaviano Castelli, dedicated to the Dauphin of France Louis of Orleans, which was represented in the residence of the French ambassador, Marquis of Coeuvre at Palazzo Ceuli, now Sacchetti, in Via Giulia, November 24, 1638.

The libretto, which according to Castelli means "the Sincerity of France and the Herculean boldness of Great Louis the Just", is an allegory aimed at exalting France and its rulers and discrediting its political rivals, through the use of pastoral, farcical, infernal scenes, battles,  spectacular machines and choirs. In the intermediates dance the major nations of Europe, Spain, Germany, France and Greece, to celebrate the birth of the dolphin. The music was composed by Angelo Cecchini (fl. 1619-1639) who worked for the court of the Orsini family in Rome.

The five engravings reproduce the special scenic effects, designed by the Bolognese Giovan Francesco Grimaldi. They are published in the edition of the libretto edited by the author Castelli, of 1639, which follows a first edition printed without his consent the previous year.

Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (Bologna, 1606 - Rome, November 28, 1680) was an Italian painter and architect. Trained initially within the Carracci family, who represented one of the main schools of painting in Bologna at the time, he then went to Rome while still young. Here he would work for a long time for patrons such as Cardinal Francesco Albani and the Santacroce family. In 1638 he married Eleonora Aloisi, daughter of the Bolognese painter Baldassarre (called the Galanino), who died in the same year and was related to the Carracci through his wife. Also in 1638 he painted the facade of the Palazzo Poli in Rome on the occasion of the visit to the city of Johann Anton prince of Eggenberg, sent by Emperor Ferdinand III of Habsburg. He collaborated with Alessandro Algardi on several occasions, including in the staging of the funeral of Marquis Ludovico Facchinetti, Bologna's ambassador to the papal court, who died in January 1644. He also worked on other apparatuses for festivals, funeral honors, and plays between 1640 and 1671. His prestige as an artist in Roman circles led him to enter the prestigious Accademia di San Luca as early as 1635 and to hold various positions within that institution (Rector in 1656) until the highest position of Prince in 1666 after having renounced it in 1658. In 1657 he also entered the Congregation of the Virtuosi at the Pantheon. In 1648 he went, at the invitation of Cardinal Julius Mazarin, to Paris to paint some rooms in the Louvre Palace.

Grimaldi produced over fifty landscape etchings, all strongly influenced by the landscape formula of Annibale Carracci and Domenichino. His prints, as well as his paintings and drawings of views, are characterized by an extremely regular and controlled approach to nature, emphasizing horizontal and vertical lines and planes. In the manner of his Bolognese models, Grimaldi often used protruding rock or earth masses, strategically placed rows of trees, and architectures placed in planes to arrange his organizational scheme.

Magnificent proof, printed on contemporary laid paper, irregularly trimmed at the marginal line, in good condition.