L'Entrée De L'Empereur Sigismond A Mantouë; Gravé en Vingt cinq feuilles, d'après une longue Frise exécutée en Stuc dans le palais du T. de la même Ville, sur un dessin de Jules Romain, Par Antoinette Bouzonnet Stella.
RA Collection: Book
Record number
06/1723
Imprint
A Paris,: chez Joubert, graveur et marchand d'Estampes, Rue des Mathurins, aux 2. Piliers d'Or., [1787 or later.]
Physical Description
25 pl. (incl. title-pl.); 320×525 mm.
General Note
All plates are pasted in.
Responsibility Note
All plates are unsigned except no. 2; which is signed as designed by Julius Romanus and engraved by Antonia B. Stella. It carries the printer's imprint ('Excud.') of Claudia B. Stella.
References
S. Massari, Giulio Romano pinxit et delineavit (1993), nos. 237-62, p. 247-71 [describing the versions of both Bartoli and Stella].
A survey of European pageantry was B. Holme, Princely feasts and festivals: five centuries of pageantry (1988).
Summary Note
Stella's engravings of this series had first been published in 1675. Here no publication-date is given with the imprint on the title-plate, but within the plate is another inscription, which reads, 'Cette frise a esté faicte de stuc soubs la conduitte, et sur les desseins de Jules Romain au Palais du Te dans mantoué, et gravée par Anthoinette B. Stella A Paris au Galleries du louvre avec privil. du Roy, 1675'. This continues (in a different hand?) 'et chez Chereau et Joubert rue des mathurins aux deux piliers d'or.' The engraver, print-publisher and print-seller, F.E. Joubert, is known to have bought the stock of F. Chereau in 1787 and to have published prints under the joint names for a few months that year.
The emperor Sigismund's entry into Mantua in 1432 was depicted in stucco between 1526 and 1532 in the Sala degli Stucchi of the Palazzo del Te, probably by Primaticcio, possibly working with Giulio Romano. The style of the stucchi imitates the bas-reliefs of the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. Primaticcio went on to develop what became known as the 'Fontainebleau School' in France, in which stucco relief and mannerist painting are combined.
Another series of engravings of this same subject was made by Bartoli (Rome, 1680); and this, also, was acquired by the Royal Academy.
Binding Note
19th-century half red morocco, marbled-papered boards; spine lettered 'Stella Entree De Sigismond' and 'R.A.'
Interior decoration - Stucco - Palaces - Italy - Lombardy - Mantua - Palazzo del Te (Mantua) - History - 16th century - Mannerism
Processions - Rulers - Monarchs - Publicizing - Public Relations - Italy - Lombardy - Mantua - History - 15th century - 16th century
Pictorial works - France - 17th century