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Greche, Domenico dalle
( fl Venice, 154358). Italian painter, wood-engraver and publisher. No paintings by him are known. In August 1546, on his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he requested from the Venetian Senate a licence to publish a series of drawings executed during his journey. This privilege being granted, the work was published under the title Particularis et vera descriptio plateae sancti sepulcri ... diligentia Dominici Dalle Greche Venet. Pict. descripta MDXLI ... (the date is clearly incorrect). He later provided illustrations for the Pellegrinaggio di Ulrich von Wilkanaus (Prague, 1547). He also provided the botanical illustrations for the codices by the naturalist Pietro Antonio Michiel (Venice, Bib. N. Marciana, MSS Marc. It. II. 26-30/48604). Apart from some maps, some of which are lost, his most notable undertaking is the 1549 edition of Titians 12-block wood-engraving of the Submersion of Pharaohs Army in the Red Sea. On the Pharaohs scroll ornament is the inscription La crudel persecutione del ostinato Re, contro il popolo tanto da Dio / amato, Con la sommersione di esso Pharaone, goloso dil inocente / sangue. Disegnata per mano dil grande, et immortal Titiano. In venetia p domeneco dalle greche depentore Venitiano. / M. DXLIX. An attempt has been made to prove the existence of an earlier printing edited by Bernardino Benalius following a licence of 1515, but the evidence is inconclusive. Only with difficulty could Domenico, an artist of modest skill, have engraved a work of such quality; the inscription indicates only the publisher, and the date does not refer to Titians involvement, so it is possible that Domenico could have acquired the blocks from Benaliuss workshop. Two other engravings by Domenico dalle Greche are known, again after works by Titian, the Lamentation and Christ Shown to the People.
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