Luigi Sabatelli (1772–1850)
Trois Crayons Magazine, September 2026
One of these drawings is a modello for the Italian Neoclassical painter and engraver Luigi Sabatelli’s series of etchings illustrating The Apocalypse of St. John. The other is a copy after that print by an anonymous artist. But which drawing is Sabatelli's original model, and which is the copy?
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The original is the lower image.
Upper (left) Image: after Luigi Sabatelli (1772–1850), Vidi, quod aperuisset agnus... (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), National Gallery of Art, Washington, inv. 2010.40.1
Lower (right) Image: Luigi Sabatelli (1772–1850), Vidi, quod aperuisset agnus... (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), formerly Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2014, lot 77
Although both sheets are close in size and finish, and are executed in the same direction as the final print, it is the upper image that is the copy. Executed with great precision, it meticulously mimics the engraved lines and stippling of the finished etching. By contrast, the lower drawing is Sabatelli’s modello. As a preparatory study, it leaves certain areas open for the artist to refine directly on the copper plate.
Sabatelli executed the series in Milan between 1809 and 1810. It was one of his major printmaking projects, conceived while he was still in Florence, most likely at the suggestion of Tommaso Puccini (1749–1811), director of the Reale Galleria Fiorentina and secretary of the Florentine Accademia di Belle Arti.
