COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING – “ST. GEORGE” from the original painting by Antonio Allegri Correggio, and engraved by T. Langer, and published in the mid 1800’s.  The means by which a copperplate is engraved gives it more detail and depth to the picture.  Copperplate engravings are seen as the most perfect means of reproducing a painting or other forms of visual art, thus giving it the most artistic value of any form of engraving.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The actual engraving measures 8” x 5 1/2”, and is matted to 16” x 20” for easy framing. 

      Correggio’s fascinating manner has always invited poetical minds to employ their imagination in fanciful interpretation of his pictures; especially Schlegel, Tieck, and other partisans of the romantic school have tried to comment on them.  Also the painter’s life, half veiled by tradition, has often furnished poets with a welcome subject; it is evident, however, from the prices which Correggio received for his pictures, that he was not that poverty stricken wretch, as poems and novels try to represent him. They are modest prices, it is true, and not calculated to make him a rich man, but still sufficient to shield him from poverty.  At all events he was not such a lamentable, moaning, whimpering wretch as Oehlenschlager has represented him on the stage.  A painter, who delighted in painting pictures so bright and so lovely, could never have been so.

      No other picture of his embodies Correggio’s cheerful disposition of mind, delighting in graceful forms and charming colours better than that of St. George, which he painted in the year 1531, for a new church of the friars of San Pietro Martire.  This picture represent the Madonna adored with wreaths of flowers, enthroned on an open arch, from whence she looks benevolently and gracefully on Peter, the Martyr, pleading in favour of his flock, whilst from the other side San Geminiano, the patron of Modena, approaches the throne of the Virgin, offering a model of the church to the Infant Christ who stretches out both His hands, eager to receive it.  St. John the Baptist stands in the foreground, pointing with delight at the Child, and the splendid form of St. George, the knightly saint, is seen standing on the opposite side with his foot placed on the dragon’s head, in full vigor and elate with joy and pride of being, as it were, the body-guard of the Madonna.  The space between these figures in filled up with sprightly genii playing on the sword or helmet of the Saint.  The whole scene is full of life, animation, and joy-fullness, and radiant with a light and brilliancy, that make even the shade appear bright and transparent.  But with all these great charms this picture of Correggio’s shows also his faults more strikingly than any other of his work.  On a closer examination of the picture we are at a loss to discover a sufficiently close connection between the actual forms, and the ideas to be expressed by them.  The animation of the Madonna, parading in the graciousness of an earthly queen, the Saints like sensual children of this earth, attending on her, and paying their address to her, amorets and the luxuriant architecture - all and each make us forget that we are looking at the picture, the subject of which is taken from sacred history.  All the foreshortenings are painted with great skill and boldness, as in the case in most of Correggio’s pictures.  The system of foreshortening, though not discover by Correggio, was greatly developed and improved by him.  According to some, the features of St. George are supposed to be those of Correggio himself; others however, with Vasari among them, say that there is no portrait of Correggio, stating as a fact that he never painted his own portrait.

                                                                                    By Carl Clauss

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated in the auction, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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