Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 31 106. Antonio Basoli (Italian, 1774-1848) , “A Stage Set Showing a Hall or Court in the Romanesque Style”, c. 1810, ink and ink wash with white gouache (image bordered in black ink) on gray laid paper, without watermark, unsigned, 13 1/8 x 18 7/8 in., on modern gray mount. $800/1200 Provenance: James R. Lamantia Jr., New Orleans and New York. Note: This is either a preparatory drawing for (or closely related to) the plates of Basoli’s major work, Raccolta di Prospettive (Bologna, 1810), which presents 102 etched plates closely resembling this sheet. Basoli—the last disciple of the Galli-Bibiena school of illusionistic perspectives—could boast of his personal responsibility for some 74 students, 633 engravings, 636 paintings, 397 drawings, 155 stage sets, and the decoration of at least 285 rooms. Based in Bologna (and a pupil of Gaetano Gandolfi at the Accademia Clementina there, where he became a professor in 1803), Basoli made work and study trips to Ravenna, Rome, Florence, Milan, and Trieste; he was eventually elected a member of the academies in Florence (1816), Rome (1822), Turin (1825), and Venice (1836). This drawing (which, needless to say, is quite imaginary in its fantastical medievalizing motifs) is fully representative of his acquisitive, eclectic personality: his invented architectures combine oriental and Northern European forms— particularly in wood, one of his specialties—with endless variations on the classical repertory of all the Mediterranean cultures, extending also to a lifelong fascination with Egyptian imagery. Reference: Martha Pollak, The Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection: vol. IV, Italian and Spanish Books, Washington and New York, 2000, pp. 47-49, no. 15. W 107. Italian School, 16th c ., “Bowman”, 1579, etching, inscribed and dated lower center, image 8 5/8 in. x 5 3/8 in., laid paper, left and right edges widened with same paperstock, with a detailed article rejecting an attribution to Cornelius Cort and posing the idea of an attribution to Lelio Orsi (Italian, 1511-1587). $500/700 108. Johannes Wiericx (Flemish, 1549-1618) , “Melencolia I”, 1602, engraving, after the Dürer work of 1514, 9 3/8 in. x 7 3/8 in., trimmed just outside image, matted; together with “Knight, Death and the Devil”, 1563, after Dürer, dated and monogrammed, by monogrammist H.R. (German, active 1559- 1563), engraving, trimmed to plate, slightly nicking image top edge, 9 1/2 in. x 7 3/4 in. $800/1200 109. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720-1778) , “The Pier with a Lamp”, c. 1760, etching, from Carceri d’invenzione , WE 40, R 41, sheet 18 3/4 in. x 24 3/8 in. $3000/5000 106 108 (1 of 2) 109