- New
The Capture of Proteus
| Reference: | S50767 |
| Author | Matthaeus GREUTER |
| Year: | 1610 ca. |
| Measures: | 460 x 385 mm |
€2,000.00
- New
| Reference: | S50767 |
| Author | Matthaeus GREUTER |
| Year: | 1610 ca. |
| Measures: | 460 x 385 mm |
€2,000.00
Description
Allegory with Menelaus capturing Proteus. At the top center the coat of arms of the Giustiniani family, Allegorical print for the thesis discussion of an unknown student. At the top the motto “NULLA FUGAM REPERIT FALLACIA”. The inscription relating to this episode, taken from Virgil's Georgics (IV, 443), warns: deception is no way out.
Engraving, about 1610/20, from a subject by Innocenzo Martini. Signed lower edge Innocen. Mart. delin. Matthaeus Greuter sc.
Magnificent work, rich in tones, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the copperplate, vertical paper fold, restoration in the upper edge, with the inscription “REPERIT FALLACIA” partly handwritten, otherwise in good condition.
Through to the work of reformers such as Ignatius of Loyola, by 1600 Rome had become a city of schools. The University of Rome, founded in the early 14th century, was joined by the Collegio Romano, founded by the Jesuits in 1551, the Seminario Romano, various national schools (including the Germanic College, the Greek College, and the English College) - dedicated to the education of young Catholics from non-Catholic countries - the Collegio Clementino, and many other minor colleges and academies. These institutions represented important new markets for printing. Professors published books that required title pages, while students celebrated their academic achievements by publishing flyers and brochures richly decorated with engravings. The impact of all this on the printing industry was considerable. At the beginning of the 17th century, Rome's educational institutions were among the city's most important consumers of printed matter. The academic year was punctuated by thesis discussions, events of fundamental importance within the system, which allowed the most gifted and talented students to showcase their eloquence and erudition before an elite audience. Thesis discussions generated a large amount of printed material, as well as the most elaborate. The broadsheets (a term used to describe individual printed publications that do not belong to a book or collection) listing the ‘conclusions’, or theses, that the student would discuss became essential accessories, which, over time, were embellished with engravings rich in artistic and iconographic virtuosity, giving rise to a fashion that would last more than a hundred years.
Prints designed and produced specifically to decorate the broadsheets first appeared in the mid-1580s, and by 1590 it was common practice for students to commission large and impressive heraldic-allegorical compositions to accompany their defenses. From the outset, these prints were not only decorative but also had a celebratory function. The Jesuits encouraged their students to dedicate their theses to important and influential figures, knowing that an elegant and well-received dedication had the potential to promote not only the defender's career prospects but also the reputation of the college. The conclusion thus served the same purpose as the dedication: both were designed to oil the mechanisms of patronage.
Among the leading artists/engravers who specialized in this new graphic market were Matthaeus and his son Johann Friedrich Greuter, who clearly enjoyed a special relationship with the Jesuits, judging by the number of prints they made for them and their students. Matthaeus may have established a connection with the Society even before leaving France; and among the Jesuits based in Rome were influential Germans who may have given him a helping hand when he first arrived there in 1603. This would explain how he managed to get off to a good start, completing several large conclusions for students at the Roman College and the Germanic College before the end of 1604. After gaining a foothold in the college market, he quickly established himself as one of the leading producers of conclusions in Rome. Fifty-eight prints of Matthaeus' theses are listed in The New Hollstein, but he certainly engraved more. At least a dozen unlisted ones exist, and since he did not always sign his plates, there are probably many more yet to be identified.
These theses, although probably printed in large numbers, are now very rare, and only a few copies are recorded in institutional collections around the world. Jorg Diefenbacher (cf. The Greuter Family part I, Matthaus Greuter, p. 209) list only 4 institutional examples of this engraving.
Bibliografia
Louise Rice, Matthaeus Greuter and the Conclusion Industry in Seventeenth-Century Rome, in “Ein Priviilegiertes Medium und die Bildkulturen Europas, Deutsche, Franzosische und Niederlandische Kupferstecher und Graphikvetleger in Rom von 1590 bis 1630” Ròmische Studien der Bibliotheca Hertziana b.de 32, pp. 221-238; cfr, Jorg Diefembacher, The Greuter Family part I, Matthaeus Greuter, in “The New Hollstein” n, 172.
Matthaeus GREUTER (Strasburgo 1564 - Roma 1638)
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Matthaus or Mathias or Matheus Greuter was a draftsman, engraver, and publisher. Son of the goldsmith Konrad of Kempten, he was born around 1565-66, probably in Strasbourg. He died in Rome in 1564, where he was buried in the church of St. Eustachius in 1638. In 1588, Greuter was also recorded as a goldsmith, although he had already been producing dated prints for at least two years, thus starting the activity to which he would dedicate the rest of his life. A Lutheran, he converted to Catholicism around 1593 and, perhaps because of this choice, he abandoned Strasbourg, moving to Lyon (around 1595-99), at that time the second most important center in France for engraving and book production, and then to Avignon (1600-03). In mid-1603, Greuter arrived in Rome with three children from his first marriage, including Johann Friedrich and Susanna (c. 1591–1629), and lived there until his death. He remarried, to Innocenza Grandoni, with whom he had a son, Carlo Felice, born in 1606 and baptized in the parish of San Marcello. Greuter is certainly recorded as having resided in this parish from 1630 to 1636 with the family of his son Johann Friedrich and several collaborators: D. Widmann, an assistant engraver, and J. Widmer, a printer's apprentice. The Flemish printer Geert van Schayck, Italianized as Gotifredo Scaicchi, Greuter's son-in-law, worked in Greuter's workshop - first indicated along the Corso near S. Marcello (for example in 1608 and 1612) and then, according to the 1618 Map of Rome published by Greuter under the sign of the Black Eagle, near S. Tommaso in Parione - even though we cannot know whether he worked there or in another building, some copper plates from this workshop certainly became the property of Greuter and F. De Rossi in 1648, later merging into the Calcografia camerale. In the later years of his life, the Stati delle anime (1633-34) mention G.'s house, near the border with the parish of S. Maria in Aquiro, as that of "the printer". Greuter's professional success in Rome was immediate, as evidenced by the considerable number of dated works from his earliest years and the repeated granting of ten-year privileges (1604, 1621), which were intended to guarantee the artist exclusivity over his creations, which were often copied. The extensive catalogue of his works, which is nevertheless subject to some additions, has been reconstructed by R. Zijlma, and includes hundreds of prints, both on loose sheets and in books. This demonstrates the artist's versatility, having trained himself on the examples of late Northern Mannerism and then increasingly drawn to Roman Baroque culture. He experimented in many fields, from independent figurative invention to engraving, from other artists' prototypes to geographical and architectural images, always with appreciable results. The main problem in establishing an accurate catalogue is the existence of numerous engravings signed "M.G.F." (or "M.G.f."), some of which were engraved in Rome in the 1580s. These cannot be attributed to Greuter, as they had not yet arrived in Italy at that time, and should therefore be removed from his catalogue, also due to the stylistic differences with his production prior to his Roman years.
Greuter's first dated engravings in Rome date to 1604. During this period, he produced prints based on drawings by others, often very complex, as well as his own. His early relationships with the Oratorians were significant, for whom he produced various reproductions of Philip Neri. Among the numerous documentary and devotional images, those relating to the ceremonies for the marriage of Cosimo de' Medici to Magdalene of Austria (1608: five engravings) and the canonization apparatus of Charles Borromeo (1610) and Ignatius of Loyola (1622) are noteworthy. One of the areas in which Greuter seemed to achieve the greatest success was topographical and architectural engravings. In 1618, he published the large and complex map of Rome he drew and engraved, based on careful measurements and real-life assessments (it was republished in 1626 and 1638).
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Matthaeus GREUTER (Strasburgo 1564 - Roma 1638)
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Matthaus or Mathias or Matheus Greuter was a draftsman, engraver, and publisher. Son of the goldsmith Konrad of Kempten, he was born around 1565-66, probably in Strasbourg. He died in Rome in 1564, where he was buried in the church of St. Eustachius in 1638. In 1588, Greuter was also recorded as a goldsmith, although he had already been producing dated prints for at least two years, thus starting the activity to which he would dedicate the rest of his life. A Lutheran, he converted to Catholicism around 1593 and, perhaps because of this choice, he abandoned Strasbourg, moving to Lyon (around 1595-99), at that time the second most important center in France for engraving and book production, and then to Avignon (1600-03). In mid-1603, Greuter arrived in Rome with three children from his first marriage, including Johann Friedrich and Susanna (c. 1591–1629), and lived there until his death. He remarried, to Innocenza Grandoni, with whom he had a son, Carlo Felice, born in 1606 and baptized in the parish of San Marcello. Greuter is certainly recorded as having resided in this parish from 1630 to 1636 with the family of his son Johann Friedrich and several collaborators: D. Widmann, an assistant engraver, and J. Widmer, a printer's apprentice. The Flemish printer Geert van Schayck, Italianized as Gotifredo Scaicchi, Greuter's son-in-law, worked in Greuter's workshop - first indicated along the Corso near S. Marcello (for example in 1608 and 1612) and then, according to the 1618 Map of Rome published by Greuter under the sign of the Black Eagle, near S. Tommaso in Parione - even though we cannot know whether he worked there or in another building, some copper plates from this workshop certainly became the property of Greuter and F. De Rossi in 1648, later merging into the Calcografia camerale. In the later years of his life, the Stati delle anime (1633-34) mention G.'s house, near the border with the parish of S. Maria in Aquiro, as that of "the printer". Greuter's professional success in Rome was immediate, as evidenced by the considerable number of dated works from his earliest years and the repeated granting of ten-year privileges (1604, 1621), which were intended to guarantee the artist exclusivity over his creations, which were often copied. The extensive catalogue of his works, which is nevertheless subject to some additions, has been reconstructed by R. Zijlma, and includes hundreds of prints, both on loose sheets and in books. This demonstrates the artist's versatility, having trained himself on the examples of late Northern Mannerism and then increasingly drawn to Roman Baroque culture. He experimented in many fields, from independent figurative invention to engraving, from other artists' prototypes to geographical and architectural images, always with appreciable results. The main problem in establishing an accurate catalogue is the existence of numerous engravings signed "M.G.F." (or "M.G.f."), some of which were engraved in Rome in the 1580s. These cannot be attributed to Greuter, as they had not yet arrived in Italy at that time, and should therefore be removed from his catalogue, also due to the stylistic differences with his production prior to his Roman years.
Greuter's first dated engravings in Rome date to 1604. During this period, he produced prints based on drawings by others, often very complex, as well as his own. His early relationships with the Oratorians were significant, for whom he produced various reproductions of Philip Neri. Among the numerous documentary and devotional images, those relating to the ceremonies for the marriage of Cosimo de' Medici to Magdalene of Austria (1608: five engravings) and the canonization apparatus of Charles Borromeo (1610) and Ignatius of Loyola (1622) are noteworthy. One of the areas in which Greuter seemed to achieve the greatest success was topographical and architectural engravings. In 1618, he published the large and complex map of Rome he drew and engraved, based on careful measurements and real-life assessments (it was republished in 1626 and 1638).
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