Simone Cantarini (1612-1648) - L'Angelo Custode

DESCRIPTION

"The Guardian Angel", aquaforte on laid paper, 12.7 x 17 cm, circa 1639. On the reverse, pencil notes and an unidentified ex libris.

The work depicts a scene of deep tenderness and intimacy: an angel walking beside, accompanying a child, gently holding the child by the arm and guiding his steps. While the boy entrusts himself with confident faith to the celestial figure, the angel raises the other hand to indicate heaven, where the faces of some cherubs are faintly and evanescently outlined. In this composition, the artist strips the sacred subject of any austere hieraticity to place it in a profoundly human and family dimension. Replacing the cold perfection associated with Guido Reni's workshop with a more intimate and domestic naturalism, Cantarini envelops his protagonists in that tender melancholy that constitutes the true stylistic hallmark and autonomous core of his poetics.

From a technical and compositional point of view, the print confirms the stature of the “Pesarese” as one of the greatest and most innovative mezzotint engravers of the European Seicento. Moving away from the rigid formalism and academic hatching of the period, Cantarini shapes the figures through a fluent, nervous line of extraordinary freedom. His is a sparse and vibrant hatching, expertly calibrated to let the white of the paper breathe and to make it vibrate with independent light. This technique allows the engraving to preserve the immediacy and freshness typical of a freehand sketch, achieving a visual synthesis of elegance and economy of means that has no equal. It is this creative genius, capable of conveying a vital breath on the metal matrix, that makes sheets like this one highly sought-after masterpieces, jealously guarded within exclusive private collections and in the print cabinets of the world’s most prestigious institutions, from the Metropolitan and the British Museum to the Louvre and the Uffizi.

ARTIST

Simone Cantarini, known as the “Pesarese” (1612-1648), trained in the Marche and then arrived in Bologna in Guido Reni’s workshop. While assimilating the master’s classicism, he developed a wholly autonomous poetics, replacing the cold perfection with a more intimate, domestic naturalism infused with tender melancholy, which made his subjects deeply human.

The absolute peak of his art nonetheless lies in engraving, where he established himself as one of the greatest and most innovative mezzotint engravers of the European Seicento. His graphic technique abandoned the era’s rigid formalism to embrace a fluid, nervous line of extraordinary freedom. With a sparse and vibrant hatching, Cantarini could make light vibrate on the white paper, returning the immediacy and freshness of a freehand sketch with an unmatched elegance and economy of means.

The genius of his plates and paintings makes him a protagonist today in the world’s most prestigious art collections. His works and his highly sought-after engraved sheets are kept in institutions such as the Louvre, the Prado, the Metropolitan, the Uffizi, the Albertina in Vienna, and the British Museum, as well as jealously safeguarded within the most exclusive private international collections.

CONDITION REPORT

Good overall condition. Artwork intact in every part with fresh and legible stroke and impression.

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