Re: Samson Woodcut 1560

11
Let me know if I can do anything to facilitate this. You're very welcome to start the threads in this forum if we just want to have them in this area, but if there is a desire for a separate forum or subforum, just let me know and I'll create a separate area, if that is what everyone thinks would be the best idea.

cheers,
robert

Re: Samson Woodcut 1560

15
Pen,
thank you for the Petrarch image with Samson: great!
Here is the relevant tercet:
Francesco Petrarca wrote: Poco dinanzi a lei vedi Sansone,
vie più forte che saggio, che per ciance
in grembo a la nemica il capo pone.
"Closely beyond her, Samson you may see,
Stronger than he is wise, who foolishly
Laid low his head upon a hostile lap."


Robert,
thanks for creating Bianca's Garden :)

Marco

PS: is the complete series of these Petrarch engravings available on the internet? Is it God the Father in the upper "lunette"?

Re: Samson Woodcut 1560

16
Marco wrote:
PS: is the complete series of these Petrarch engravings available on the internet? Is it God the Father in the upper "lunette"?
Thanks for the tercet, Marco! The Petrach image came from An Introduction to the History of Woodcut (Hind, Dover Books edition but first published in 1935). I think there may be a couple more - I'll scan and post them in Bianca's Garden later. One has a Visconti-style precipice on the foreground edge.

I think it must be God the Father in the upper lunette, but Hind's angle is the process and history of woodcut rather than content - he doesn't say.

Pen
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...

Re: Samson Woodcut 1560

17
Pen wrote:The Petrach image came from An Introduction to the History of Woodcut (Hind, Dover Books edition but first published in 1935). I think there may be a couple more - I'll scan and post them in Bianca's Garden later. One has a Visconti-style precipice on the foreground edge.

I think it must be God the Father in the upper lunette, but Hind's angle is the process and history of woodcut rather than content - he doesn't say.
Ah, great! I like Arthur Hind :) As far as I know, he was the one who had the most serious and useful approach to the Sola Busca deck.
I should read his "Introduction", I think it is a real classic about engravings. If I remember correctly, he mentions Sola Busca also in the introduction, even if those cards are not woodcuts.

If these Petrarch images are ancient enough, it is possible that he reproduces and discusses them in his major work "Early Italian engraving : a critical catalogue with complete reproduction of all the prints described". Next time I go to the library, I should check this.

Marco

Re: Samson Woodcut 1560

18
For Samson:



A Trionfi scene:
At the left bottom we see Samson and Delilah (Delilah cutting the hair of Samson), at the right bottom is Aristoteles and Phyllis. A naked Hercules is at the left.

It's from this text:




This is the start page of a Petrarca "Trionfi" edition (with accompanying other texts) of ca 1465-1470.

The manuscript is offered by Christie's for ca $495,600 - $660,800 and there described:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_ ... fd2318dc49

It's made for members of the Visconti family in Milan (not the Sforzas), so we see the family heraldic of the dragon.

Special (Tarot) interests should belong to the (small) representation of Daphne + Apollo at the left border of the start page) ... it confirms, that the developing Daphne-Iconography (as a major topic of Renaissance art) in deciding manner was influenced from Milan (and perhaps the oldest of these Milanese Daphne appearances had been possibly the Michelino deck, the "oldest Tarot cards").

The Hercules of the Love Trionfi is possibly interesting, cause the Sforza card "Hercules with lion" (from the second artist of the Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Tarocchi) developed around the same time, at least according the 5x14-theory.

Hercules is mentioned as Ercole in the Trionfi text (Love chapter), though only short (as many others):

Colui ch'è seco è quel possente e forte
Ercole, ch'Amor prese; e l'altro è Achille,
ch'ebbe in suo amar assai dogliose sorte.

Achilles, which appears in thetext near to Ercole, is possibly the central armed man in the right group at the love Trionfi. The poem itself mentions many persons, and it seems, that neither Ercole or Achille get much attention, so it's remarkable, that the edition favours just this both figures - possibly, cause the figures are "very modern in Milan ca. 1465-70".
Huck
http://trionfi.com