“POTREBBE ESSERE LA PIÙ ANTICA TRADUZIONE DEL SEPOLCRO DI URBANO VIII…” (CIUFFA). Engraving, 65 x 39 cm to platemarks, on sheet 66 x 42 cm. Printed on laid, unwatermarked paper. Two discreet repaired closed tears to left margin; some contemporary ink staining confined to non-focal areas of the image, otherwise a well-preserved example. Splendid, separately-issued large-format print depicting perhaps the earliest view of Bernini’s tomb of Urban VIII, completed in 1647. Unusually made of mixed media including bronze, the sepulchral monument housed in St. Peter’s basilica was a fitting testament by the great sculptor to his greatest patron. Crucq and others have noted that Bernini’s figure of Charity was subsequently censored with stucco (remaining to this day) in the mid-19th century, as her bare breasts were considered too lascivious to befit a papal tomb (Crucq, “Lifelike and Bare-breasted: On the Covering of Bernini’s Charity Statues at Saint Peter’s”). While several commentators have speculated that Charity was modelled after Bernini’s former mistress Costanza Bonarelli, Sarah McPhee (Bernini’s Beloved, p. 10) rejects this claim for lack of evidence. The most exhaustive study of Bernini prints, that of Ciuffa (2018), designates this large-format engraving as the first, and the basis for six subsequent depictions in sources ranging from Chacon’s Vitae et Res Gestae Pontificium (1677) to Palazzi’s Gesta Pontificum (1688), Buonanni’s Numismata (1696), Fontana’s Templum Vaticanum (1694), and Aquila and Specchi’s Studio d’Architettura (1711). All later prints are easily distinguished from the present one both in design and by their much smaller dimensions. According to Ciuffa, the engraver is anonymous, the date is ‘before 1653’ and the dedicatee – Giovanni Battista Padavino – was presumably the ‘segretario della Repubblica di Venezia’ of the same name. The publisher was Giovanni Domenico de Rossi (1619-1653), who operated a small print-shop in the Piazza Navona but died prematurely at the age of just 34, after which his stock passed into the hands of his more celebrated younger brother, Giovanni Giacomo (1627-1691); this transition can be seen in the re-engraved publisher’s imprint in the present example. “Quest’ anonima ma eccellente incisione, giunta come folgio sciolto, potrebbe essere la più antica traduzione del sepolcro di Urbano VIII, come lascia intendere più di qualche elementi… L’incisione, di ottima qualità per la chiarezza compostitiva e la precisione del segno, è forse la più bella tra quelle qui proposte. L’anonimo incisore restituisce con grande abilità l’umanità delle figure berniniane e la vitalità del pontefice. La Carità, ancora nuda, sarà coperta oltre un secolo dopo. Le tavole successive sembrano derivate, almeno per l’inquadratura e l’idea, da questa rara incisione.” (Ciuffa, p. 220). We have traced copies at the British Museum (acquired 1861), the Rijksmuseum (acquired 1816), the British School in Rome (Thomas Ashby Collection), and the Bibliotheca Nazionale Centrale in Rome. Ciuffa notes four copies, all in Rome, including one in a private collection; she also notes that the Herziana copy is trimmed to the margins. * Benedetta Ciuffa, “Tomba di Urbano VIII”, pp. 219-229 in Bernini tradotto. La fortuna attraverso le stampe del tempo, 1620-1720 (2018); De Lotto, Bernini in Vaticano (1981), p. 110 n. 90.