GIUSEPPE SALVIATI (GIUSEPPE PORTA, CALLED IL SALVIATI), AFTER MARCO DENTE. Frontispiece to 'Le sorti di Francesco Marcolini da Forli intitolato Giardino di Pensieri'
Frontispiece to 'Le sorti di Francesco Marcolini da Forli intitolato Giardino di Pensieri'. Artist: After Marco Dente (Italian, Ravenna, active by 1515-died 1527 Rome); Giuseppe Salviati (Giuseppe Porta, called Il Salviati) (Italian, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana ca. 1520-ca. 1575 Venice). Dimensions: sheet: 9 7/16 x 7 5/8 in. (23.9 x 19.3 cm). Date: 1540.
This woodcut of a scholarly gathering is fully signed by Giuseppe Salviati yet is an almost exact copy of an engraving by Marco Dente, who died in 1527. The only changes are the adaptation of the book in the foreground to represent Marcolini's fortune-telling book and the addition of the pack of cards required for divination. That Giuseppe so prominently signed a copy suggests that he cut the block himself-indeed, it was usually the cutter rather than the designer who signed or monogrammed a woodblock.