it
A constructed sequence, not a casual set
Forty-four profiles.
A substantial portion of a much larger project.
Each sheet follows the same structure: a half-length portrait, a central coat of arms, and a biographical inscription below. The layout does not change, and it is precisely this consistency that builds the rhythm of the whole.
The engravings form part of the Series of Portraits of Illustrious Tuscan Figures, published in Florence between 1766 and 1773 by Giuseppe Allegrini and dedicated to Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. The complete work includes 206 portraits; the present group gathers 44 — a significant and coherent portion of a carefully structured editorial project.
These are original 18th-century intaglio engravings, printed from copper plates on laid paper.
This is not a decorative series.
It is a construction of cultural memory.
The subjects include figures such as Dante, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, alongside writers, scholars, clerics and statesmen, and in some cases female figures. Not an inventory, but a mapped identity.
What changes from one sheet to another is the individual: clothing, rank, posture, attributes. What remains is the structure.
The engraved line is even and controlled, used to define volume without emphasis. Faces are not expressive, but identifiable.
This was not intended as a set to be handled individually. It was conceived to be displayed, ordered and repeated on a wall — in a study, a library, or a room of representation.
Not the single portrait, but continuity.
The black lacquered frames, largely original, preserve this compact reading. The glass, partly original hand-blown with its characteristic surface undulations and partly replaced, introduces a subtle distance without affecting clarity.
Installed as a group, the series does not accumulate. It constructs.
Condition
The prints show age-consistent wear, including foxing, surface marks, minor marginal losses, and occasional retouching. Frames are largely original; glass is partly original blown glass and partly later replacements.
- Material: Etching and engraving on paper, with wooden frames
- Size: each approx. cm 31 x 42 h
- Condition: Restored
- Period: Seconda metà del '700
- State: Good conditions
