ALLE ORIGINI DELL'INCISIONE IN LOMBARDIA. DUE STUDI

The research originates from a deep interest for Lombard Renaissance engraving, which occupies a position of clear – also historical – inferiority to the results obtained in other cities such as Florence, Venice and Bologna. Nonetheless, it was this particular context that produced a masterpiece such as the Prevedari Print (1481), our considerations on which link its technical and iconographic singularity to its remarkable fortune as a figural source in Italy and in Europe. On the basis of Vasari's theory, and with the intention of clarifying the cultural and artistic milieu within which the author of the Prevedari, as well as the other engravers, worked, we engaged a territory never previously attempted: the production of niello-plates in Lombardy. We studied and classified pieces of goldsmiths’ work still in their original location, and then the severed niello-plates preserved in museums. We also attempted a reconstruction of the cultural milieu where such an interest developed, addressing both specific literature and collections. The most important finding were the niello-plates from the Trivulzio collection – now kept at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. – which constitutes one of the foremost group of such works in the world.