BATTISTA BAJ is one of my favourite silhouettists; I’ve learned a lot from looking at the best of his silhouettes. At his best these are silhouettes I would struggle emulate, even after cutting for nearly thirty years.
Baj B stamps and labels
Baj was meticulous about labelling his silhouettes.The silhouettes I’ve collected come with a bewildering variety of stamps and printed labels, most of which identify the artist as either “Baj. B”, “Bay B.”or simply “Baj”. Generally speaking, he used the name in Baj Italy and Bay in France.
I only discovered what the “B” stands for by accident when I discovered that, like me, he had written a book about silhouettes. His book, written in Italian, has the wordy title “L’Arte detta anche Papirographia” (The Black Art Known as Papyrography), and was published in 1906. Sadly, I’ve not yet been able to get hold of a copy.
His name seems to combine a gender-neutral Italian given name (meaning “baptist”) with a surname of Eastern European origin. This perhaps tells us something of his heritage, but doesn’t confirm his gender. I’ve assumed this from what I take to be a self portrait on the cover of his book.
Apart from that, the little I know about the artist comes only from looking at his silhouettes. These tell me that Baj spent a number of years in the early 1920s cutting silhouettes on the fashionable Lido Beach in Venice. He used a set of souvenir postcards to mount the silhouettes, which he must have had printed specially as each card includes the artist’s name. After cutting their silhouette, Baj would have asked his clients to choose which background they wanted, from a choice of at least eight that I’ve seen (but I suspect a dozen or so).
The earliest Baj silhouettes date from 1907 and were cut at an exhibition in Bordeaux, France. There are also a number of undated, stamped silhouettes which could have been cut anywhere in Europe around this time. His book cover hints at biographical details, so if ever I get hold of a copy I’ll update this post.
Baj B silhouettes
Baj silhouettes vary from mediocre to truly extraordinary. Many of them include delicate pencil shading at the back the collars. Although I’ve never seen an unlabelled Baj silhouette, I know this would be a sure way to attribute it if I did.
There’s a silhouette in my collection I call the “Peaky Blinders” cutting . It’s one of very few silhouettes I’ve seen and immediately knew I couldn’t have made it. Both the tiny scale and intricate collar cutting would be beyond me at a live event. The line of the glasses is cut in a single slash almost right through the head, while the head is held to the body only by two slender slivers of paper (the back of the collar being open and shaded in with pencil).
This, of course, is the real reason I collect these unknown artists. Every so often, they teach me something new. Battista Baj is just such an artist.
Further information about Baj B.
- None available (please contact me if you have any)
