Silenus and the Satyrs.
Roma: Battista de’Rossi, 1640. Item #1419 Original engraving and etching. 385 x 260 mm. (15 ¼ x 10 ¼ inches]. This copy is trimmed to the plate mark with margins reinforced with strips of white paper frame. The impression is very good with crisp clean lines, and the paper stock is lightly toned with age. With faults a very good copy of this interesting and rare engraving. Later impression of this famous engraving by Francesco Burani (1600-1699) depicting a drunken Silenus reclining against a wine barrel with three satyrs. Silenus is a figure in Greek mythology who was referred to as the god of wine and the companion of Dionysus. He was depicted as an old, drunken fellow who was a fountain of wisdom and charm but controlled by his weakness for the nectar. Burani studied with the Spanish Baroque painter and engraver Juseppe Ribera (1591-1652), who became one of the leading painters in Naples during middle years of the 17th century. In 1626 he produced one of his most famous paintings, Drunken Silenus, which became the basis for Burani’s engraving of 1640. What distinguishes Burani’s engraving is the playfulness of Silenus character, a far cry from the slothful image depicted by Ribera. "Silenus seated near a barrel, leaning with his right arm on the back of a Satyr, and placing his left hand on the thigh of a second Satyr who holds a pan flute. To the right, a third Satyr dances, playing castanets. At the bottom of this same side, one reads: Fra.cus Buranus Reggien. Fecit. The later impressions bear on the lower left this address: Gio Bat. De Rossi ex, in Piazza Navona in Rome. With permission of the Superior."
Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur, vol. XX p. 90. Bryan, Michael Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers,. London: 1886. p. 200. Arthur Hind. A History of Engraving & Etching, (1923), p, 362.
Price: $2,000.00