This portrait of Michelangelo in profile, dated 1545, has traditionally been attributed to Giulio Bonasone. However, it appears that Bonasone's version of the portrait was based on the present engraving and created one year later. The attribution of the primary version to the Enea Vico, an engraver from Parma, was proposed by Rudolph Weigel in 1840 and followed by Nagler in his Künstler-Lexikon in 1850 (Vol. XX, p. 218, n. 253). The print dates back to Vico's Florentine period, when he engraved other subjects after Michelangelo himself, but also designs by Francesco Salviati and Baccio Bandinelli, Michelangelo's first imitator and great rival.
Interestingly, the present impression is printed on what must be a maculature of another print: on the body of the sitter and in the background to the right, faint traces of figures with spears and arms and other shapes can be seen. These traces correspond exactly to the upper part of another, contemporary print, namely the engraving The Triumph of Scipio by the Master of the Die (Bartsch 74). We will never know the reason or purpose of this marriage of two images - the printer's wish to save a sheet of paper or an outburst of creative experimentation? What we can deduct with some certainty is that both plates must have been in use around the same time and at the same workshop. If it was indeed an artistic choice to print one on top of the other, it was an inspired one, for it adds mystery and drama to this portrait of the artist, who is depicted in distress, with a drop of sweat trickling down his temple.
To our knowledge, no other impression has been offered at auction within the last thirty years.
The Pontifical Scots College in Rome (‘Pontificio Collegio Scozzese’) was founded on 5 December 1600 by Pope Clement VIII. In its initial years, the College provided an education for young Scottish Catholic men who, due to the laws against Catholics, could not receive a Catholic education at home. Inspired by St John Ogilvie, the sixteen students studying at the College vowed on 10 March 1616, one year to the day after his martyrdom, to return to Scotland as priests; thus the College became a seminary and has been preparing men for the priesthood and for service in the Church's mission in Scotland ever since.
At first the College was situated in a little house on what is known today as Via del Tritone, opposite the church of Santa Maria in Costantinopoli, but as early as 1604 was transferred to Via Felice, now called Via delle Quattro Fontane, and there it remained until 1962. Two years later, the College moved into purpose-built, modern premises on the outskirts of Rome, on Via Cassia. The building was closed in 2023 and the College is temporarily residing at the Pontifical Beda College.
It was through Dr Alexander Grant, rector of the College from 1846-1878, that a collection of prints came into the College’s possession. A substantial part of the holdings, including many of the most notable works, were sold in the late 1960s. The present selection is being offered for sale to commission a contemporary work of art, once a new and permanent home for the seminary has been found, to commemorate this significant moment in the history of the Scots College in Rome, a history that spans from 1600 to the present day.
.jpg?mode=max&width=600)