Detail from La Sainte Vierge (The Holy Virgin) by Nicolas Pigné, after a painting by Francesco Trevisani, called Romano, 18th century. Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
after a painting by Francesco Trevisani, called Romano, history painter, 1656-1746
This beautiful etching and engraving by Pigné of the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus was based on a painting of the same subject by Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746). In this scene, Mary lifts a covering over the face of the sleeping child and the young St. John the Baptist at the lower right bends to kiss his hand. Two angels at the left play musical instruments - a lute and recorder - while another sings. A voluminous drapery covers the upper part of the scene. In the right background is a vase of lilies and roses.
From the Nicholas S. Lander Web site, Recorder Iconography, here is a description of an engraving by the same title in the University Library at Uppsala: "The Holy Virgin, engraving, 33 × 28 cm, after Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746).... A nativity scene which includes a lute-playing angel and the young St John the Baptist. A putto sings from a book; another plays a small recorder of late baroque design with curved-over beak and bulging ornate rings at the joints. All the recorder player's fingers are covering their holes, but the lower (right) little finger has a hole beside it...."[1]
An engraving of this image having nearly the identical dimensions of the Miller print is in the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the print department of the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.[2]
For an image of the original painting by Trevisani, once owned by Louis XIV and now in the Museé du Louvre, see Frank R. DiFederico, Francesco Trevisani: Eighteenth-Century Painter in Rome: A Catalogue Raisonné.[3] Entitled Madonna and the Sleeping Christ Child with Three Music-Playing Angels, the catalogue entry states that this painting was sent by Cardinal Ottoboni to Louis XIV in 1709. The print by Pigné is a mirror image of the original painting by Trevisani.
About the Artists
Nicolas Pigné, engraver, 1700-?
Nicolas Pigné was a French engraver born at Châlons-sur-Marne in 1700, according to Bénézit. His death date is not given. He was a student of Bernard Picart (1673-1733), a painter, draughtsman and engraver. Pigné probably went to England around 1718 and he engraved portraits and religious subjects.
Francesco Trevisani, called Romano, history painter, 1656-1746
Francesco Trevisani was an Italian painter who was born in Capodistria in 1656 and he died in Rome in 1746, according to Bénézit and Grove Art Online/Oxford Art Online. His father, Antonio Trevisani, was an architect who taught him drawing. His first formal art studies were with Antonio Zanchi (1631-1722) in Venice. Later, he studied with the genre painter, Joseph Heintz the younger (1600-1678). In 1678, Trevisani went to Rome under the patronage of Cardinal Flavio Chigi, for whom he worked until the cardinal's death in 1693. Trevisani's work in Rome before 1700 shows the classicizing influence of Carlo Maratti (1625-1713). After 1700, through his association with Cardinal Ottoboni, another patron, Trevisani's work was very much affected by the work of the artists in the Accademia degli Arcadi, the "Academy of the Arcadians," who also painted in a more classicizing style. Trevisani, a painter of religious and mythological subjects, as well as portraits, received many commissions to paint altarpieces and decorative projects for churches. Trevisani was a prolific painter who achieved great renown in Rome, especially after the death of Maratti in 1713. He also received commissions throughout Europe - from the Prince-Bishop Lothar Franz von Schonborn, and families from the Savoy, Portugal and England. His Arcadian canvases with their idyllic sensibility had much influence on French painters such as François Lemoyne (1688-1737).[4]
Notes
- See Nicholas S. Lander Web site, Recorder Iconography, under Trevisani. [back to article]
- Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, accession number 1963.30.29061. An image of the Achenbach engraving can be found online (search for Pigné). [back to article]
- Frank R. DiFederico, Francesco Trevisani: Eighteenth-Century Painter in Rome: A Catalogue Raisonné. Washington, D.C.: Decatur House Press, 1977, cat. no. 36, pl. 30. LC call number: ND623.T924D53. [back to article]
- For further biographical information on Trevisani, see the two following articles: 1) Hugh Brigstocke, "Francesco Trevisani," in the Oxford Companion to Western Art which is available via Oxford Art Online; and, 2) Ugo Ruggeri, "Francesco Trevisani," available in Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online (both by subscription only). [back to article]