10. Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi
(1606-1680)
Landscape with St. Mary Magdalen

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Grimaldi, Landscape

Landscape with St. Mary Magdalen

Etching, Bartsch 43, 274 x 391 mm. Fine, strong impression with some apparent slippage (possibly purposeful to imply movement) in the upper tree foliage and sky, on laid paper with good margins. Grimaldi, after Carracci, fairly well typifies the Bolognese landscape and was one of its most important practitioners. Based on reality, but hardly ever representing a particular place, these Italianate landscapes invariably focus on trees in leaf, distant hills or mountains and running water, and there seems to be something distinctive and immediately recognizable about the "Bolognese tree." That Grimaldi chose to place the Magdalen in this setting is not particularly significant as in similar landscapes he inserted the Flight into Egypt, nymphs and satyrs, men playing dice and a family discovering a snake. It is the idea of landscape that is important, the remembrance of nature later on in the studio. Does the landscape say anything to us? Yes, it says “Bologna,” for that is where this particular idea of landscape representation was developed.