BATTISTA ANGOLO DEL MORO

All the prints that are catalogued as copies and derivations of Du Cerceau’s etchings by Battista Angolo del Moro (under E.56,3, and E.57,1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10) are part of a set of twenty-one etchings that Bartsch attributed to Andrea Schiavone (Bartsch, XVI, 1818, 83-91, 13-33).  The first state of these etchings with drypoint is uninscribed.  Thirteen known in a second state – and there may be more – are inscribed in different places on each print: Andrea Schiaon f..  A title page by another printmaker (Bartsch, VI, 1818, 91-92) is inscribed: RACCOLTA DE’DISEGNI / ET COMPARTIMENTI / DIVERSI / Tratti da Marmi e Bronzi de Agli antichi Romani / ET DEDICATE / ALL’ILLMOSIGR. GEORGIO / MAYNWARINGE / CAP.NO ENGSE / Franc° Valesio D. D.  Valesio was a Venetian publisher.  Bartsch thought these prints were after Titian.

Herbet (II, 1896, 268-269, 1969, 64-65, n. 1) accepted the attribution to Schiavone but noted that they were derived from the decorations at Fontainebleau.  He specified ten as done after prints by Fantuzzi and thought the other ten – Herbet miscounted the number in the set – were either after Fantuzzi’s prints or after prints by others, which are still to be found.

In 1927 the prints were attributed to Moro by Lamberto Donati (“Belle Stampe di Andrea Meldolla detto lo Schiavone,” Archivio storico per la Dalmazia, IV, October, 1927, 13-20).  Franca Zava Bocazzi (“Di alcuni poco note acquaforte di Andrea Schiavone,” Emporium, 137, 1963, 103-111) maintained the old attribution to Schiavone but recognized the source of some of the etchings in Fantuzzi’s prints after Rosso.  Zerner (1964, 63, 84, n. 31, but under n. 29) attributed them to Giovanni Battista Pittoni, an attribution that was accepted by Oberhuber (1966, 145, 163-164, under no. 274).  In 1979, Zerner (IB, 32, 124-145) again suggested Pittoni as the printmaker, but with a question mark.  The entire subject of the authorship of these prints was reviewed by Francis L. Richardson in 1980 (109-110).  His convincing arguments in support of Donati that the prints are by Moro are accepted by me.  They must have been done before 1562, when they served Giovanni Battista Pittoni for the etchings in his Imprese di diversi Principi, Duchi, Signorï, published in Venice that year.

Moro’s prints that appear under Du Cerceau are derived from the latter’s etchings.  The twenty-one prints deserve further study, not only to locate the sources of all of them but also to see how those sources have been transformed to make this set.  The unity of the set seems determined by its subjects, all of which are related to women.  All but one (Bartsch 18) shows the bust of a woman and all but one (Bartsch 33) has a central scene with women as significant figures.

Antal, 1966 (1928-1929), 56, n. 2, mentioned Rosso’s influence on these prints (as by Schiavone).