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

DESCRIPTION

"The Guardian Angel", etching on laid paper, 12.7x17 cm, circa 1639. On the back pencil notes and an unidentified ex libris.

The work depicts a scene of deep tenderness and intimacy: an angel advances escorting a boy, delicately holding him by the arm and guiding his steps. While the child trusts the heavenly figure, the angel raises the other hand to indicate the sky, where the faces of a few cherubs emerge in a gentle and evanescent way. In this composition, the artist strips the sacred subject of any austere hieraticness to place it in a profoundly human and familial 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 which constitutes the true stylistic hallmark and autonomous spirit of his poetics.

From a technical and compositional point of view, the plate confirms the stature of the “Pesarese” as one of the greatest and most innovative etchers of the European Seicento. Moving away from the rigid formalism and academic hatching of the era, Cantarini shapes the figures through a fluid, nervous, and extraordinarily free mark. His is a light, vibrant hatch, wisely calibrated to let the white of the paper breathe and to make it glow with autonomous light. This technique allows the engraving to preserve the immediacy and freshness typical of a freely drawn sketch, achieving a visual synthesis of elegance and an economy of means that have no equal. It is precisely this creative genius, capable of conveying a living breath onto the metal matrix, that makes sheets like this true masterpieces, jealously guarded within exclusive private collections and in the print rooms 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 completely autonomous poetics, replacing the cold perfection with a more intimate, domestic naturalism imbued with tender melancholy, which made his subjects profoundly human.

The absolute pinnacle of his art resides, however, in engraving, the field in which he established himself as one of the greatest and most innovative etchers of the European Seicento. His graphic technique abandoned the rigid formalism of the era to embrace a fluid, nervous, and extraordinarily free mark. With a sparse and vibrant hatching, Cantarini managed to make the light vibrate on the white sheet, restoring the immediacy and freshness of the freehand sketch with an elegance and economy of means unsurpassed.

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

CONDITION REPORT

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

Tracked and insured shipping with adequate packaging.