“K” by Mauro Poggi

“K” by Mauro Poggi

c.1730

Hand-painted Engraving

This striking hand-colored engraving from Mauro Poggi’s famous Alfabeto di lettere iniziali features the letter K styled in a vibrant crimson and deep red palette. Created by the Florentine design master Mauro Poggi and printed via the crisp linework of engraver Abbé Lorenzo Lorenzi around 1730, the monumental script initial is constructed from fluid, intertwining Rococo foliage and leafy tendrils. The dynamic letterform serves as an interactive landscape for four distinct figures: a youthful satyr or faun scaling the central vertical stem, a fierce bird of prey perching within the upper right loop, a smaller avian creature alighting on the lower left scroll, and a roaring lion's head emerging directly from the bottom terminal swash. Richly applied watercolor tones dramatize the deep, carved dimensionality of the foliate flourishes while injecting life into the biological elements, generating a marvelous equilibrium between calligraphic anatomy and naturalistic fantasy. Serving simultaneously as an educational writing pattern and an elite specimen of graphic invention, the artwork encapsulates the very pinnacle of eighteenth-century book ornamentation.

Poggi's Alfabeto di lettere iniziali is widely regarded as one of the finest and most imaginative alphabet books of the eighteenth century. Comprising twenty-four engraved initials, each letter is animated by an inventive cast of animals, mythological creatures, and human figures integrated seamlessly into sweeping Rococo forms. Although little is known about either Poggi or his engraver, Lorenzo Lorenzi, this remarkable publication secured Poggi's lasting reputation among historians of lettering and book arts. Bibliographer Bonacini described it as a "precious collection of astonishing imaginative richness," while H. Lehman Haupt, in his influential 1958 essay Human Alphabets, praised Poggi's ability to achieve "monumentality" through the graceful integration of countless decorative details into unified compositions. Extremely scarce, with only a handful of institutional copies recorded, the work represents a high point in the history of ornamental alphabets and reflects the eighteenth century's fascination with the union of calligraphy, printmaking, and decorative art.

Dimensions: H 11 ½”x 17 ½”W

Condition: Some foxing, tape on back