6. Baron Dominique Vivant Denon
(1747-1825)

The Abbot Zani, the Famous Antiquarian

(click on image to print)
Denon, The Abbot Zani

The Abbot Zani, the Famous Antiquarian

Etching, with tone plate and added wash & white heightening, before 1800, 207 x 136 mm., The Illustrated Bartsch 121-160-.191. A fine impression printed in black and salmon from two plates on laid paper with good margins, with added white gouache highlights and grey wash. TIB makes no mention of such printing although a registration mark is visible in the impression reproduced. The white highlights and grey wash, however, are not. The print dates from before 1800 although the exact date is unnown. The Abbé Zani became known for his discovery, in the Bibliothèque National collection, of an engraving (actually a niello) by Maso Finiguerra, dating from 1452 and apparently unique, which discovery led to the collecting craze for nielli (and the subsequent fakery of such). The print ostensibly shows him in the very act of making the discovery.