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| PC1992.1
Salvator Rosa Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl Etching, 1661 336 x 216 mm. |
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| In
the seventeenth century, artists commonly practiced both the art of painting
and printmaking. Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, and Anthony Van Dyck are among
this group. Salvator Rosa, born in Naples in 1615, is another example of
an artist who worked in several media. In addition to etching and painting,
he was also a playwright and poet. A very independent and fascinating character,
Rosa used his art as a means of conveying his own philosophical thought.1
Rosa first began painting at the age of 15. He studied with the artist Jose Ribera and imitated the works of Aniello Falcone, a battle painter. Starting in 1635, he spent about four years in Rome, where he furthered his reputation as a dynamic character. While there, he flaunted his skills as an improviser of comic plays, and in one of them apparently insulted the artist Bernini.2 To avoid further problems, he moved to Florence where his artistic career thrived and where he began to write satires. He finally settled in the city of Rome in 1649, staying there until his death in 1673. Printmaking was a vital part of Rosa's career, because like many artists, he used it as a form of self-promotion.3 Unlike other artists, however, who relied upon patrons and commissions for work, Rosa rejected the tradition of art patronage. He wanted to control all aspects of his art. As a printmaker, Rosa was unique in that he had full control over his plates, personally supervising their printing and publishing.4 Working at his own press and selling his prints through dealers5, he maintained an atmosphere of artistic freedom that was rare for the time. This allowed him to focus his energies on subjects that interested him and that gave him a means of venting the philosopher within. Throughout his life, Rosa did more than 100 etchings. Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl is one of Rosa's larger prints, done perhaps as part of a series with three others which are similar in size.6 The others include St. William and its companion, Albert, and Glaucus and Scylla. The Apollo is most naturally paired with Glaucus and Scylla, because both prints are based on subjects taken form Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story of the sibyl follows the story of Glaucus in Ovid's book.7 The story perhaps appealed to Rosa's romantic nature; this etching is the earliest of his to be based on classical literature.8 In the Metamorphoses, the sibyl tells of her encounter with Apollo as she leads Aeneas through hell in search of the ghost of his father, Anchises. She tells Aenaes that when she was a girl Apollo had promised to give her whatever she wanted if only he could possess her. Testing him, she pointed to a heap of sand and asked him to grant her as many years in life as there were grains of sand. Apollo gave her the wish and told her that she could have eternal youth and beauty if she would agree to be his. She refused him, and as punishment, was forced to live out the 1000 years he originally gave her. But instead of staying young and beautiful, she aged and became uglier as time went by. In his etching, Rosa depicts the girl stretching out her hand, showing Apollo the mound of sand that he would translate into years. Rosa's style points both Baroque influences and his romantic nature. The branches behind Apollo dramatically bend as if in response to a strong wind, as Apollo's hair also swirls about his head. Altogether, the print is lacking the dark tonality of Rosa's later etchings. This has been attributed to his conservative techniques with the burin and his manner of biting the print only once.9 K.H. 1 Bartsch
45 (comm.), 375.
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