The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Bulletin

Prints and Photographs
PRINTS
Master I 9 V
Active about 1540-50
Virgin and Child with Saints Margaret and Jerome, a Bishop
Saint, and an Angel (Saint Michael)
After Parmigianino, Italian, 1503-1540
About 1540-50
Etching
Sheet, 1 3' 5/6 X 9'/z in. (35.4 x24. 1 cm)
Gift of Nicholas and Caroline Stogdon, i990
1990.115 2
The Master I v is one of four etchers who produced among
them several hundred prints at the Chateau of Fontainebleau
during the last years of Francis I (r. 1 515-47). At the recently
enlarged chateau, Italian artists, first Rosso and then
Primaticcio, supervised the grand scheme of decoration, and
apparently it was Primaticcio who instigated printmaking there.
The etcher known as i9 v made perhaps fifty prints, of which
sixteen are monogrammed; the rest are attributed on the basis
of style. This style is characterized by a certain informality,
almost wildness, imparting to the prints a great deal of charm.
Attempts to identify I9 v among lists of artists at Fontainebleau
have been no more than guesses; at this point all that is
really known is the work itself.
The oeuvre, too, awaits a definitive catalogue: Adam Bartsch
listed seven works, and Felix Herbet, twenty-seven; neither
knew this extremely rare print (the only other impression
known to me is in the British Museum). Henri Zerner's book
on the school of Fontainebleau does not include this etcher.
The print was first identified as a work of I9 v by the donor,
Nicholas Stogdon.
The print reproduces a preparatory study by Parmigianino for
a painting of 15z8-z9 made for the church of Saint Margaret
at Bologna. In the painting, however, the figures are in a
landscape, not an interior; an engraving by Bonasone of the
composition also shows a landscape. Why this print shows
an interior and the answers to many other questions will, it is
hoped, emerge with further research into this fascinating and,
so far, elusive printmaker.
SB
Related references: Adam Bartsch, Le Peintre-graveur, vol. I 6, Peintres
ou dessinateurs italiens, repr., Leipzig, 1870, pp. 370-373; Felix Herbet,
"Les Graveurs de l'Ecole de Fontainebleau, 4: les Eaux-Fortes nomminees
ou marquees," Annales de la Societe Historique et Archeologique du
Gatinais (I899), pp. 347-355; repr., Amsterdam, I969, pp. 197-z05;
Henri Zerner, The School of Fontainebleau: Etchings and Engravings,
New York, I969.
Entries by Colta Ives, Curator in Charge; Suzanne Boorsch,
Associate Curator; Maria Morris Hambourg, Associate
Curator; David W. Kiehl, Associate Curator; Malcolm R.
Daniel, Curatorial Assistant; Jeff L. Rosenheim, Research
Assistant.
45
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org