Saint Mary (the Blessed Virgin) with the Christ Child. Stipple engraving by A. Gamble after Annibale Carracci.

[1800?]

La Ste. Vierge. Dédié à son Excellence Mr. le Baron de Vietinghoff Conseiller privé de S.M. l'Empereur de toutes les Russies; Président du Comité Litteraire de la Société impériale de Bienfaisance; et de la Société impériale de Minéralogie de St. Petersbourg. Annibal Carrache pinx. A. Gamble sourd-muet. sculp.

Not one of the eight works by A. Gamble recorded in: Jean Adhémar and Jacques Lethève, Inventaire du fonds français après 1800, Bibliothèque nationale, Département des estampes, tome huitième, Paris 1954, p. 351 ("Gamble (A.). Graveur au pointillé. 1. Sept images diverses, vers 1810-1829: L'Amérique... 2. L'Adoration des bergers, e. f. au pointillé d'apr. Chasselat.")

Wellcome Collection 12032i

No information about the deaf engraver A. Gamble has been found. The dedication mentions the Emperor of all the Russias, which would seem to date the print in the reign of the Emperor Paul (reigned 1796-1801) or his successor Alexander I (reigned 1801-1825); previously an Empress had occupied the throne (Catherine, reigned 1762-1796). However, the dedicatee Von Vietinghoff died in the reign of Catherine, in 1792 (according to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie); he was in Riga until 1787 when he went to St Petersburg and was appointed Director of the Medical College. He could not therefore have been described as a councillor to the Emperor. Perhaps a later Von Vietinghoff was the dedicatee

After part of a composition by Annibale Carracci showing the Holy Family with St John the Baptist, known as the "Madonna Montalto", formerly in the Salviati collection, which was lost until its rediscovery in 2003, when it was offered for sale at Sotheby's, London, and subsequently acquired by the National Gallery, London. It was recorded in copies such as the engraving by Cornelis Bloemaert (in reverse, like the present print) and in several paintings, one of which was formerly in the Hermitage. See G. Malafarina, L'opera completa di Annibale Carracci, Milan 1976, no. 93