Lot 145: VALENTINIS, SEBASTIANO DE'.

VALENTINIS, SEBASTIANO DE'. ... FORMA DEL GRAN ESSERCITO TURCHESO [THE ORDER OF BATTLE OF THE TURKISH ARMY. UDINE?], 1558 Large etched and engraved print (398 x 712mm.), first state, laid on twentieth century paper, trimmed to image, the lower left corner with loss of engraved area supplied in pen and ink

Bury, M. The Print in Italy 1550-1620, (British Museum, 2002), no.125 (ill.); cf. Tooley Maps in Italian Atlases, 609, second state, with formal title, and 610, a derivative by Antonio Lafreri

A very rare sixteenth-century print of the Turkish army, in the first state. The only other copy we have located is in the British Museum. This is a dramatic, but romanticised image, of the Turkish Army marching, passing in front of burning towns, evidently reflecting contemporary campaigns in Hungary. At the centre is the army commander, shielded by a large canopy, surrounded by the Janisseries, a mounted band in front preceded by infantry, with the artillery train in the foreground and at the rear.

Valentinis was an artist from Udine in north-eastern Italy who, so far as is known, made only two other prints. The rather crude engraving of the text suggests that Valentinis must have engraved the lettering himself, rather than employ a specialist letter engraver.

The dedication is to the Marchesa Sforza Pallavicino, who was appointed Captain-General of the Venetian infantry in 1557, the year before this print was published, and had served against the Turks in Hungary. This print appears to have been intended to bring the artist to the attention of so-distinguished a figure – a common device to solicit future commissions – but the gushing personal recommendation in the bottom left hand corner by Marcantonio Fiducio, Chancellor of Udine, is most unusual in a print.
This original version is very rare, here in its first state with the dedication to Pallavicino, which was removed in the second state, and so was presumably not successful, but a number of derivatives, on a smaller scale, can be found in Italian atlas collections in succeeding years.