1530-1540<\/p>\n
Vasari, 1568, II, 211 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 170), in the French part of the \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso: \u201c… si come sono ancora infiniti disegni, che il Rosso fece di saliere, vasi, conche, ed altri bizzarrie, che poi fece fare qual Re [Francis I] tutti d\u2019Argento, le quali furono tante che troppo sarebbe di tutte voler far menzione.\u00a0 E per\u00f2 basti dire, che fece disegni per tutti i vasi d\u2019una credenza da Re…\u201d\u00a0 Then, in writing of the engravings that Boyvin made after Rosso\u2019s designs, Vasari (1568, II, 308; Vasari-Milanesi, V, 434) writes of the \u201cvasi, lumiere, candelieri, saliere, ed altre cose simile infinite state lavorati d\u2019Argento con disegno del Rosso.\u201d<\/p>\n
Le Comte, III, 1702, 10-11 (as reported by Kusenberg, 1931, 203, n. 259), adds to what Vasari says that the table service executed after Rosso\u2019s designs was used during the banquet given by Francis I on the occasion of the visit of Charles V to Fontainebleau.\u00a0 No source is known for this remark and it is probably only a conjecture, but a likely one if the objects of which Vasari writes existed at the end of 1539.\u00a0 Kusenberg, 1931, 105, 203, ns. 260-263, mentions an inventory of 1560 of the gold and silver objects in the royal collection at Fontainebleau, where, however, they are not precisely described; he also identifies such objects in prints by Boyvin and Fantuzzi, as well as in one drawing formerly in the Destailleur Collection, as Rosso\u2019s designs.\u00a0 Barocchi, 1950, 252, tends to see these designs as closer to Cellini than to Rosso.\u00a0 Zerner, 1969, XLIV, A.F.52-54b, considers the etchings by Fantuzzi as after Rosso.\u00a0 Thirion, 1971, 45-47, discusses the prints by Boyvin and Fantuzzi as after Rosso\u2019s designs and remarks upon their influence on Cellini.\u00a0 Borea, 1980, 261, believes it reasonable to attribute the designs of Fantuzzi\u2019s prints to Rosso.<\/p>\n
Although the objects engraved by Boyvin (RE.11, 1-9<\/a>) and one by Fantuzzi (Fig.RD.22, Etching<\/a>) are all inspired by Rosso\u2019s art, their specific style does not seem to be his.\u00a0 It is quite likely that these prints, none of which bears Rosso\u2019s name, are all dependent on lost drawings by L\u00e9onard Thiry (but not the ten vessels set on ledges in two of Fantuzzi\u2019s etchings, which are related neither to Rosso nor to Thiry, Fig.Fantuzzi, Paris, I <\/a>and Fig.Fantuzzi, Paris, II<\/a>).1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Two drawings of similar objects, one of a small water bottle (Fig.Water bottle<\/a>), formerly in the Destailleur Collection, the other of a small casket, in the Louvre (Fig.Small casket<\/a>), may also be associated with Thiry.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Only one such design might actually be by Rosso himself, the Design for a Candlestick<\/i>, known from a copy of a lost drawing in St. Petersburg (Fig.D.49<\/a>).\u00a0 But this drawing, along with the very Rossoesque prints and drawings that can be connected to Thiry, certainly leads one to suppose the former existence of other drawings by Rosso of such objects (Carroll, 1987, 31, 35, n. 97).\u00a0 From these designs actual silver objects might well have been fashioned and may have survived long enough to be listed in the inventory of 1560.\u00a0 For a lost \u201cvaisselle d\u2019argent\u201d that Francis I had made in 1536 or 1537 as a gift to James V of Scotland, and which could have been designed by Rosso, see under RE.11, 1-9<\/a>.<\/p>\n One cannot, of course, know how many drawings of table service objects Rosso made.\u00a0 Vasari indicates many.\u00a0 There is the possibility that after making a few he used them as models to train his assistants – L\u00e9onard Thiry, in particular – in how to invent similar designs for the king\u2019s silversmiths.\u00a0 However, there is no evidence that Rosso used his assistants in this way for any other project of his.\u00a0 It is more probable that the designs attributable to Thiry, including the two dishes on high bases decorated with Francis I\u2019s Salamander (Fig.RE.11,4<\/a>), were made after Rosso\u2019s death to serve the printmaker and to meet the need for Rossoesque designs when authentic ones were not available.<\/p>\n For further discussion of Rosso\u2019s possible activity as a designer of such objects, see D.49<\/a> and the catalogue entries for the rejected drawings and prints mentioned above.\u00a0 For a reference to \u201cvaiselles\u201d in the Cabinet du Tr\u00e9sor at Fontainebleau, see Gilles Corrozet, Les Blasons domestiques<\/i>, 1539, 30, transcribed by K. Wilson-Chevalier, in Fontainebleau<\/i>, 1985, 88.\u00a0 On the St. Michael cup, in Vienna, made in Paris, 1535-1540, with motifs related to Rosso\u2019s art, see Hackenbroch, 1966, 84, 86, Fig. 5.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Designs for Jewelry<\/span><\/p>\n There are no sources that indicate that Rosso made designs for jewelry in France.\u00a0 However, there are twenty engravings of jewelry designs from Boyvin\u2019s studio that seem to be based on drawings by Thiry and that could reflect the kinds of inventions that Rosso made and that have been lost (see below).\u00a0 Of course the prints could represent mere extrapolations from Rosso\u2019s decorative vocabulary used in the large painted and stucco schemes that he designed for the ch\u00e2teau at Fontainebleau.\u00a0 Nevertheless, jewelry was needed at the French court and it is reasonable to conjecture that Rosso designed some.<\/p>\n The themes and figural vocabulary of these jewelry designs are closely related to details in the Gallery of Francis I as transcribed by L\u00e9onard Thiry in his drawings for Boyvin\u2019s twenty-six engravings of the Story of Jason<\/i> (RE.15<\/a>).\u00a0 Pagan scenes of ritual washing and sacrifice occupy the centers of a pair of brooches (Fig.R-D, 162<\/a>) recalling the Scene of Sacrifice<\/i> in the Gallery of Francis I, while another pair of pendants show the Annunciation<\/i> flanked by Adam and Eve on one pendant and on the other the Tablets of the Law with a scholar seated with an open book at each side (Fig.R-D, 163<\/a>), the latter recalling Rosso\u2019s St. Paul and St. Peter<\/i> engraved by Boyvin (Fig.E.8a<\/a>) with the Tablets of the Law set into the frame above them.\u00a0 Two brooches on one plate show on one Acteon approaching Diana\u2019s nude companions at their bath, and on the other Narcissus looking at his image in a pool of water as Diana looks on from the darkness of the woods in which she hides (Fig.R-D, 168<\/a>).\u00a0 Rings (Fig.R-D, 160<\/a>), earrings (Fig.R-D, 169<\/a>) and bracelets or chains (Fig.R-D, XI, 24.3<\/a>) freely use the ornamental detail of the Gallery of Francis I for their own richness and delight without reference to a particular subject.<\/p>\n For references to the jewels in the Cabinet du Tr\u00e9sor at Fontainebleau, see Gilles Corrozet, Les Blasons domestiques<\/i>, 1539, 30, transcribed by K. Wilson-Chevalier, in Fontainebleau<\/i>, 1985, 88, and 98, 100-101, no. 50, on a print of a jewelry design by Du Cerceau \u201cdans l\u2019esprit du Rosso.\u201d<\/p>\n On other drawings and prints of jewelry designs that reflect Rosso\u2019s art, see J.J.L. Whiteley, <\/i>\u201cDrawings of the M\u00e9dallons Historiques,\u201d Master<\/i> Drawings<\/i>, XXX, 2, 1992, 174-184; see also Hackenbroch, 1966, 84, 87, Fig. 7, of a ring probably made at Fontainebleau.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>1<\/sup>Five Decorative Vessels on a Ledge<\/i>, I, 17.5 x 32.7, and II, 17.3 x 32.5.\u00a0 Herbet, II, 1896, 275-277 (1969, 71-73), 24 and 25, as Fantuzzi.\u00a0 Zerner, 1969, A.F.52 and A.F.53.\u00a0 Kusenberg, 1931, 166, as Fantuzzi after Rosso.\u00a0 Thirion, 1971, 46, and n. 90.\u00a0 Raggio, 1974, 74.\u00a0 The shapes of these vessels and their grotesque and naturalistic ornament are not related to Rosso\u2019s vocabulary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>2<\/sup> On the Destailleur drawing, see Weigel, 1865, 656, no. 7735b; and Kusenberg, 1933, 168, Fig. 7, 170.\u00a0 On Louvre Inv. 1583, see Kusenberg, 1931, 149, no. 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>3<\/sup> Thirion, 1971, 45, 47, suggested that Rosso made furniture designs that may be seen or reflected in the prints of Du Cerceau.\u00a0 I have not seen any works by Du Cerceau that indicate a direct dependence on furniture drawings by Rosso.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a>4<\/sup> Twenty Engravings for Jewelry<\/i>, 9-9.2 x 14.4 (Robert-Dumesnil), except the first (Robert-Dumesnil, 160), 9 x 42.7.\u00a0 Title page inscribed: Au Sieur Aulbin du Carnoy \/ Orfebure et valet de Chambre \/ Dv Roy<\/i>, and: Paulcs<\/sup> de la Houve excud<\/i>., which also appears at the bottom of all the other sheets (Fig.R-D, 160<\/a>).<\/p>\n Fuhring, 1989, 327, under no. 36.1, commenting on the remarks in De Jong and de Groot, 1988, no. 36, states that the title of the Boyvin set must have been copied from that of Nicolaes de Bruyn, and not vice versa<\/i>, indicated by the empty tablet in the Boyvin title that, in the de Bruyn set, bears the monogram of the artist.\u00a0 Also, Boyvin did not engrave the title, which was probably added by the publisher, Paul de la Nouve.<\/p>\n Robert-Dumesnil, VIII, 1850, 73-74, 160, and 74-76, 161-170.\u00a0 Duplessis, XI, 1871, 24, 3.\u00a0 Georges Duplessis, Le Livre de Bijouterie de Ren\u00e9 Boyvin, d\u2019Angers reproduit en fac-simile par M. Amand-Durand<\/i> (11 plates), Paris, Rapilly, 1876.\u00a0 Jessen, 1920, 71.\u00a0 Levron, 1941, 79-80, 267-286.\u00a0 Byrne, 1981, 94, no. 111.<\/p>\n COLLECTIONS: Amsterdam (De Jong and de Groot, 1988, no. 36).\u00a0 Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, OS 765.\u00a0 New York, 30.67.4.\u00a0 Paris, Ed 3, in-folio and Le.47, pet.in-folio.<\/p>\n The designs of these prints have never been attributed to Rosso; their style appears to be Thiry\u2019s, as noted by Acton, in French Renaissance<\/i>, 1994, 309, under no. 74.\u00a0 They are mentioned here because they could reflect lost jewelry designs that Rosso may have made.<\/p>\n The inscription on the plates refers to their Flemish publisher who, according to Adh\u00e9mar (1959, 471), established himself in Paris around 1580.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1530-1540 Vasari, 1568, II, 211 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 170), in the French part of the \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso: \u201c… si come sono ancora infiniti disegni, che il Rosso fece di saliere, vasi, conche, ed altri bizzarrie, che poi fece fare qual Re [Francis I] tutti d\u2019Argento, le quali furono tante che troppo sarebbe di tutte voler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":826,"menu_order":56,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7835","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7835"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8356,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7835\/revisions\/8356"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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