ARARPI0131694
Paper Engravings by Joseph Wagner XVIII Century
Paper engravings. Five are from drawings by Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-1767) and the other five are from drawings by Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752). They all depict episodes from the Old Testament, with different characters and episodes. Of Zocchi there are scenes from the life of Tobias, of Jephthah, of Moses (the burning bush), of Hagar and of Lot. Of Amigoni, scenes from the life of Jacob, of David with Abigail, of Abraham and two others of Moses (Moses saved from the waters and Moses defending the daughters of Jerus at the well). The German Joseph Wagner trained as a painter in Venice, in the workshop of the Rococo painter Jacopo Amigoni, who invited him to devote himself to copper burin engraving. In 1739 he founded the Wagnerian chalcography in Venice, which quickly became the most important print production center of the Serenissima; his workshop was very popular with many Venetian etchers (Volpato, Brustolon, Piranesi to name a few). In the prolific workshop, the most talented engravers active at the time were employed in the creation of hundreds of prints reproducing all kinds of the variegated eighteenth-century lagoon figurative culture, creating works of a high quality level, in which they immediately played a leading role the prints taken from prototypes of Amigoni, The revived scenes are of Rococo taste, set in landscapes dominated by a gentle nature and embellished by the presence of ancient ruins, and inserted in graceful rocaille frames. The engravings show slight gore of humidity. They are presented in contemporary gilded frames, with period glasses.