Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Il Bolognese (Bologna 1606-1680 Rome)

The engravings and woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer were already widely dispersed and copied extensively during the artist’s lifetime. Admiration for the great Northern printmaker from Italian artists did not cease in the 17th Century, as attested by this sheet. Here, Grimaldi copies the landscape seen in the background of Dürer’s famous engraving The sea monster (Bartsch 71). While Grimaldi carefully recorded every detail of the landscape seen in the print, he added the hill and trees in the foreground which are drawn with looser penwork. Furthermore, he did not abandon his characteristic style, giving the drawing its original character. Another version of this drawing was with Kate de Rothschild, London (Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, 1987, no. 5, ill., erroneously described as being the present drawing), and later sold at Christie’s, London, 3 July 1990, lot 37.