Very Rare. We have only been able to locate one another example of this engraving (apparently on paper) at the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica, Bologna.
A fine keepsake printed on silk celebrating the famous Italian opera singer Josephine Grassini who performed across Europe and was the mistress of Napoleon.
This engraving printed on silk is a portrait of the Italian Contralto, Guiseppina (Josephine) Grassini. She stands in the centre of the image wearing a draping neo-clasical dress, sandals, and a long cape whose folds reach to the floor. An angel figured above her lays a laurel wreath upon her head. This winged angel is also surrounded by drapery and plays her trumpet into the air. The background includes details of the masts and sterns of ships, trees, and leaves.
The French inscription below the image reads:
Les voila donc les traits l’honneur de l’italie
A tout l’art du pinceau ne peut aprocher d’euxHelas!
C’est qu’un mortel en a fait la copie.
Et que l’original en fut
[Here are the features of the honour of Italy
All the art of the brush cannot approach them [her honours]
Alas! It’s because a mortal made a copy of it.
And that the original was… by the gods]
Some of the text is obscured by the embroidery design but is visible in the only other known copy of this image and suggests that Grassini is here shown playing the role of Penelope (possibly in Piccinni’s opera of the same name) in Genova in 1803.
Guiseppina Grassini (1773-1850) was regarded as one of the best singers in Europe and celebrated as a great beauty. Grassini was trained initially by her mother and later by Domenico Zucchinetti in Varese, and Antonino Secchi in Milan. She made her stage debut in 1789 singing Guglielmi’s La Patorella Nobile in Parma. From 1792 onwards Grassini sang in the theatres of Vicenza, Venice, Milan and Naples and in London.
In a performance on the 4th of June 1800 of La Vergine del Sole at La Scarla, Milan – shortly before the Napoleonic victory at Marengo Grassini caught the attention of Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France. Following this meeting Grassini moved to Paris initially for a short period, (1800-1801). She returned to the city in 1806 and again in 1815, where, in spite of its changing politics she remained a popular public figure.
