Details
VIEN, JOSEPH-MARIE (1716-1809). Caravanne du Sultan à la Mecque Mascarade Turque donnée à Rome par Messieurs les Pensionnaires de l'academie de France et leurs amis au carnaval de l'année 1748. [Paris, ca. 1749].
2° (368 x 258 mm). Etched and engraved title with dedication to Jean François de Troy (Director of the Académie de France à Rome), 31 etched plates, of which 30 numbered plates of costumes (and one chariot), and one unnumbered plate of "Trompettes, Pages, Esclaves, et Vases", by and after Vien. (Some light mostly marginal foxing, faint dampstaining to outer margins.) Contemporary French russet morocco, gilt arms of Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac (OHR 407, fer 15) at center of covers, within gilt border composed of Richelieu's repeated tool of two crossed bâtons de maréchal intertwined with an ornate R, the full tool with coronet (OHR fer 17) repeated within arabesques at corners and in compartments of spine, gilt edges (joints and extremities quite rubbed, inner hinges cracked).
Provenance: Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac (1696-1788), supra-libros as above (attributed to his son Louis-Antoine-Sophie by Guigard, II, 412).
FIRST EDITION of Vien's charming series of etchings, depicting the costumes worn by members of the French Academy in Rome for a "Turkish mascarade" held during the Carnival celebrations of 1748. In 1744, after winning the Prix de Rome, Vien went to Rome as one of the pensionnaires of the Academy; he spent his time there designing costumes and chariots for mascarades and producing works for Roman churches. He returned to Rome in 1775 as the newly appointed director of the French Academy. Under the influence of the Comte Caylus, who helped focus his interest in the frescoes at Herculaneum, he began painting in a neo-classical style, making him the first French artist of his century to paint in that genre. His pupils included some of the foremost artists of the Neo-classical period, notably Jacques-Louis David. The costumes in the present suite are "a curious mixture of authentic Turkish habits and European invention" (Blackmer), showing the stock figures of the Turkish court. Vien's original drawings and oil paintings for the Mascarade are held by the Musée du Petit Palais; they were exhibited in Berlin in 1989.
The plates were re-issued in 1768, chez Fessard, and chez Basan and Poignant ca. 1770 (the latter in markedly inferior impressions, according to Cohen-de Ricci). The present copy has particularly wide margins and fine impressions of the etchings. Cohen-de Ricci 1014-15; Colas 3005; Le Blanc, II, p. 122, 8-39; Lipperheide Sm 10; cf. Blackmer 1730.
2° (368 x 258 mm). Etched and engraved title with dedication to Jean François de Troy (Director of the Académie de France à Rome), 31 etched plates, of which 30 numbered plates of costumes (and one chariot), and one unnumbered plate of "Trompettes, Pages, Esclaves, et Vases", by and after Vien. (Some light mostly marginal foxing, faint dampstaining to outer margins.) Contemporary French russet morocco, gilt arms of Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac (OHR 407, fer 15) at center of covers, within gilt border composed of Richelieu's repeated tool of two crossed bâtons de maréchal intertwined with an ornate R, the full tool with coronet (OHR fer 17) repeated within arabesques at corners and in compartments of spine, gilt edges (joints and extremities quite rubbed, inner hinges cracked).
Provenance: Louis-François-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac (1696-1788), supra-libros as above (attributed to his son Louis-Antoine-Sophie by Guigard, II, 412).
FIRST EDITION of Vien's charming series of etchings, depicting the costumes worn by members of the French Academy in Rome for a "Turkish mascarade" held during the Carnival celebrations of 1748. In 1744, after winning the Prix de Rome, Vien went to Rome as one of the pensionnaires of the Academy; he spent his time there designing costumes and chariots for mascarades and producing works for Roman churches. He returned to Rome in 1775 as the newly appointed director of the French Academy. Under the influence of the Comte Caylus, who helped focus his interest in the frescoes at Herculaneum, he began painting in a neo-classical style, making him the first French artist of his century to paint in that genre. His pupils included some of the foremost artists of the Neo-classical period, notably Jacques-Louis David. The costumes in the present suite are "a curious mixture of authentic Turkish habits and European invention" (Blackmer), showing the stock figures of the Turkish court. Vien's original drawings and oil paintings for the Mascarade are held by the Musée du Petit Palais; they were exhibited in Berlin in 1989.
The plates were re-issued in 1768, chez Fessard, and chez Basan and Poignant ca. 1770 (the latter in markedly inferior impressions, according to Cohen-de Ricci). The present copy has particularly wide margins and fine impressions of the etchings. Cohen-de Ricci 1014-15; Colas 3005; Le Blanc, II, p. 122, 8-39; Lipperheide Sm 10; cf. Blackmer 1730.