The Massacre of the Innocents (Le Blanc 7)

The present, monumental print of the Massacre of the Innocents has long been overlooked in the body of prints after - mostly lost - works by Francesco Salviati. It was only in 1999 that Suzanne Boorsch came across the impression in the Bibliothque National in Paris and published the existence of the present first state, with the address of Cavalieri and the name of Salviati. Until then it had generally been considered after Baccio Bandinelli. In the second state, the name of Salviati has been erased and the address replace with that of Salamanca. The first state is dated 1561 and Salamanca died in 1562; it could been only a year between the making of the print and the change of the address. Impressions of the first state are hence extremely rare, with the Paris impression apparently being the only one in a public collection.