David Hockney
David Hockney 'In memoriam Cecchino Bracci', etching and aquatint, 1962, on wove paper, a unique impression of this unrecorded print, signed and dated in pencil, numbered 1/1, with margins. P. 330 x 350mm., S. 450 x 500mm.
If, buried here, those beautiful eyes are closed
Forever, this is now my requiem.
They were alive and no one noticed them,
Now everyone weeps them, dead and lost.
In this etching David Hockney pays tribute to Francesco (Cecchino) Bracci (1529-1544), a young favourite of Michelangelo Buonarroti. The youths untimely death at the age of fifteen led Michelangelo to write forty-eight love poems dedicated to his memory, one of which Hockney quotes in this etching. This is the only known impression of this unpublished and unrecorded print. A painting with the same title hangs in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
Exhibitions
“Hockney, Printmaker,” organised by Richard Lloyd, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, England, 5 February – 11 May 2014. Illustrated in catalogue.