Jacopo della Nave or Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau?

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Cabinet des Estampes in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, has for many years been attributed to Jacopo della Nave, and was published by Arthur M. Hind in his Early Italian Engraving as by an anonymous engraver of the sixteenth century.' It is the purpose of this note to suggest that, instead, the artist in question is the Frenchman Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau. Jacopo della Nave is an extremely elusive creature; he appears in none of the obvious sources-neither in other museum and library print rooms nor in dictionaries of artists, with the exception of Zani,2 who seems to have started the misnomer simply by naming the artist from the monogram on two of the prints, IA with a boat. The nameJacopo della Nave thereafter appears in the catalogue of the Bibliotheque Nationale's Reserve by Courboin,3 and although Hind was doubtful about it, he had nothing else to suggest. He thought that these seven prints were by the same hand as an Italian Virgin and Child (Figure I). This seems to be an obvious mistake: the Virgin and Child is by one artist, an Italian, and will therefore not be mentioned here again, while the other seven (Figures 2-8) are by an entirely different artist, a Frenchman. If there is any question that this group is by a single artist, details of the cherub heads or of the shields, for instance, link the whole group irrevocably. It seems highly unlikely that anyone with the name Jacopo (if we are to consider that name for a moment) would abbreviate it by capitalizing the first two letters of his first name only, IA. The more usual abbreviations of Jacopo are Iac. (or Jac.) and Io. (or Jo.), not I A (or J A)--I and J being interchangeable equivalents to all intents and purposes. It seems more probable that instead of being an abbreviation these are initials and that the A stands for a second name (Figure 9). The della Nave, the name evidently invented by Zani, seems simply to refer to the little boat above the initials. Now a caravelle under sail is part of the coat of arms of the city of Paris.4 It was used as a symbol and emblem of Paris from time out of mind, for instance on coins and medals of the thirteenth century. In the temporary