L’EPISODIO DELL’IRA DI MARATTI: SPUNTO PER UNA RIFLESSIONE SUL RUOLO DEGLI INCISORI DI TRADUZIONE NEL XVII SECOLO

Abstract

Abstract
This article aims to investigate the figure of the incisore di traduzione (translation engraver)
during the Seventeenth century, starting from an anedocte narrated by J.B.
Descamps (1764) in the Life of Robert van Audenaerde, a flemish painter and engraver,
pupil of Carlo Maratti in Rome since 1685.
This episode, probably not too close to reality in all its parts, constitutes, primarily,
the starting point for clarifying the situation, the problems and the difficulties of the
engravers, often seen with suspicion by the great masters with whom they worked and
considered as clumsy copiers by Seventeenth-century criticism, of which this article
highlights the main stages. On the other hand, the anedocte represents the beginning
of the emancipation of the engravers, which came at time (the last decade of 17th century)
when the debate on the validity of the translation engraving has reached its peak
and has turned into a new interest for those who practiced it.