Code: 10110
Dimensions:
GIOVANNI PAOLO CIMERLINI Verona 1534/35 – after 1609
The Aviary of Death.
Etching and engraving; c. 1570. Bartsch 36, there incorrectly attributed to Battista Angolo del Moro, but attributed to Cimerlini by David Landau in his discussion of it in The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1983, cat. no. P55. A fine impression of this exceedingly rare etching in very good condition; some very minor stains and creases, a very small marginal tear lower left corner and an old centerfold. Watermark: an unidentified coat of arms.
The attribution, according to Landau, rests on similarities between it and a signed etching of Saint Christopher of 1568. He suggests the empty inscription space lower center and the empty escutcheon held by the angel in the sky must have originally contained a text and posits a now lost first state with texts.
The title refers to Death as the bird catcher who snares humans as bird catchers snare birds, in this case with worldly pleasures and pursuits. This melancholy version of the memento mori theme has other analogous versions in German art of the first half of the 16th century.
434 x 598 mm 17 1/8 x 23 9/16 inches
1. Landau notes that Bartsch’s description cannot refer to the present etching, as it omits several important elements, such as the écorché figure in the left foreground shadows and the angel in the sky.
2. Landau’s idea of a lost first state is entirely reasonable, but it is also possible that the etcher erased the texts before any state or edition. The extreme rarity of the etching suggests that it was never published in any systematic fashion; the artist may simply have neglected, after deciding to efface the inscriptions, to make any further additions.
3. Landau, ibid.
