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ALLEGORICAL PRINT SERIES OF 4 SEASONS, WITH SATIRICAL TOUCH
TEMPESTA, Antonio. [The Four Seasons].
Rome, Giovanni Orlandi, 1592. Oblong 4to. A series of 4 numbered etched allegorical prints (14.5 x 21 cm), with classical gods representing the four seasons and numerous other figures. Mounted on the four leaves of a modern album of fine laid paper, grey paper wrappers.
| Orders and Information | € 2950 |
A lively series of four allegorical prints representing the four seasons, by Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). Each shows a god representing the season sitting in a cart pulled by an odd variety of animals (including six sorts of birds, besides the less surprising sheep, calves and goats), with numerous allegorical and other figures in the background, and each with three wreaths or fans with the names and zodiac signs of the three relevant months. These signs are born by three attendants, depicted as putti in Spring, but gradually aging to become old men in Winter. Each print has a Latin caption.
Spring (March-May) is represented by Flora or Primavera with flowers, surrounded by the nine muses with a wide variety of musical instruments, while Zephyr blows flowers at her from behind. Summer (June-August) is represented by a bear-breasted Ceres, goddess of agriculture, with a shock of wheat and some leafy vegetables, and a field of wheat in the background. Her cart is followed by Mars, Saturn and the devil, and Apollo drives his chariot before the blazing sun. Autumn (September-November) is represented by a drunken Bacchus reclining naked on a pile of fruits and melons or pumpkins. His cart is followed by Pan and a Bacchante. In the background, Priapus holds two babies while two female figures crown him and three others play musical instruments. Winter is represented by Pluto as an old man, warming his hands at a brazier on his cart, which is edged with root vegetables. In the background, a man on crutches and three other male figures walk next to a fat woman riding a pig and carrying a bottle and a skewer of roasted birds.
Tempesta's earliest dated engravings appeared in 1589, and the present series nicely shows his fresh and vigorous style ("la vivacité de la touche" as Bartsch put it) with a satirical side. Meetz indicates that Tempesta's series was partly inspired by the 1560 series by his teacher, Joannes Stradanus, but her descriptions make it clear that Tempesta's series was an original work, departing in many ways from Stradanus's. No watermarks are visible in the present set (the prints are in quarto format, so the watermarks may have been trimmed off at the head or foot), but the paper stock is distinguished by its widely-spaced chainlines (about 32.5 mm apart). Each print is signed and dated by Tempesta ("invenit et fecit"), some explicitly from Rome, and plate 2 is also signed by Giovanni Orlandi ("formis"), who probably printed and published the series. The name of the month April appears in mirror image.
Each print has been trimmed close to the border and mounted on the leaves of a modern album made for the purpose. In very good condition, with only three minor abrasions in the first print, one affecting one letter in the caption. A lively allegorical print series with classical gods representing the four seasons.
