London, Printed for the Author, by J. McCreery, and published by Taylor and Hessey, [1808]-1823
A beautiful work reproducing in facsimile eighty-four drawings in the author’s own collection, all that appeared of an arduous attempt to provide “a chronological sequence of the designs of the most eminent artists of Italy”. The sheets represent the work of some two dozen artists ranging in date from the 14th to the 17th centuries, among whom Michelangelo and Raphael feature predominantly (nearly half of the plates reproduce their drawings). “The eighty-odd plates, some of which Ottley engraved himself… are tours de force of facsimile engraving; never, even with the most elaborate mechanical processes, have drawings been more faithfully reproduced… It is indeed one of the most sumptuous books on the fine arts ever produced” (J.A. Gere).
London, Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. Shakespeare-Press, and sold by G. and W. Nicol, [etc.], 1812
A fine series of prints reproducing Italian drawings in the Royal Collection, selected by John Chamberlaine, the King’s Keeper of Drawings and Medals. The drawings are mostly reproduced in their actual size and a variety of techniques are employed to render them faithfully, including stipple, aquatint, roulette, and soft ground etching; to compound the effect, some drawings are printed on tinted papers.
A catalogue of the pictures in the royal gallery in Dresden, compiled by the painter Johann Friedrich Matthäi, professor in the art academy in Dresden (from 1809), latterly Inspektor (1823) and Direktor (1834) of the royal gallery.
Two volumes (31.5 and 37 cm), I: 104, lxxix (9) pp., including 1 tipped-in colour plate. II: [214] pp., including 94 tipped-in colour plates. “Nota para la colocacion de los retratos” tipped onto endpaper. Harmonious leather bindings. - Photolithographic reproduction of the manuscript Libro de retratos (Biblioteca de la Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. Signatura: M 6-1; Inventario: 15654), together with a commentary by the scholar and owner of the manuscript for some 40 years, José María Asensio y Toledo (previously published at Seville in 1867). The manuscript contains fifty-six bust portrait drawings in black and red chalk and grey wash and forty-four “elogios”, short biographies, written by Pacheco or other writers, in honour of contemporary, “illustrious and memorable” men. The subjects portrayed are all Spanish with the exception of the Flemish painter Peter de Kempeneer; work on the book probably began late in sixteenth century (the frontispiece is dated 1599). On the methods and techniques of reproduction used in this facsimile (produced 1881-1884), see Juan Carrete Parrondo, “El Libro de retratos de Pacheco” in Goya 193-195 (July-December 1986), pp.168-173. Marta Cacho Casal, “The ‘true likenesses’ in Francisco Pacheco’s Libro de retratos” in Renaissance Studies, volume 24 (2010), pp.381-406. ¶ Ink stamp on first leaf on each volume: Manuel de la Puente y Cueva | Sevilla. Hinges of volume II reinforced, endpapers discoloured.
Three volumes (35 cm), I (Quattrocento, 1925): 66 pp., 91 collotype plates with captioned guards. II (Hochrenaissance, 1925): 39 pp., 65 collotype plates with captioned guards. III (Spätrenaissance, 1926): 31 pp., 104 collotype plates with captioned guards. Uniform publisher’s cloth. - The first of these three albums illustrates drawings attributed to Jacopo Bellini and his two more famous sons, and to Cima, Basaiti, Antonello da Messina, Crivelli, and concludes with a large group credited to Carpaccio. Included in the second album are sheets attributed to Giorgione, Palma Vecchio, Savoldo, and Lotto; the principal feature of the third volume is a group of 25 sheets attributed to Paolo Veronese. Arntzen & Rainwater L-51 to L-53; Chamberlain 1114-1116; Lucas p.93. ¶ From the library of Denys Sutton (1917-1991), editor of Apollo magazine (1962-1987), inscribed by him in pencil “Zurich 1938”; occasional pencil annotation in Sutton’s hand. Bloomsbury Book Auctions, Catalogue of the art reference library of the late Denys Sutton CBE (the first portion), London, 13 February 1992, lot 187. Cloth somewhat soiled, else very good.
Chicago, University of Chicago Press ("printed in Italy"- title-page verso), 1938
Three volumes (35 cm), I (Text): xiv, 367 (1) pp. II (Catalogue): xii, 388 pp. III (Illustrations): (6) pp., 1109 half-tones printed in black, (4) pp. index. Uniform publisher’s blue cloth, printed dust jackets (volumes I-II only). - An illustrated catalogue of known Florentine drawings from the Trecento to Michelangelo and his contemporaries, with a separate text discussing each artist, compiled to provide for “the fuller understanding of the artist and his finished works”. This approach was highly original: “No large systematic study of old master drawings had ever been written before, and no one had thought, in the words of the title, of criticizing and studying them as ‘documents in the History and Appreciation of Tuscan Art’” (Kenneth Clark, cited by Philip Pouncey in Master Drawings, volume 2, 1964, p.278). It remains an essential tool for scholars. The work was first published in New York & London in 1903, in two unwieldy volumes containing 2801 entries and 180 heliotype illustrations (limited editions of respectively 355 and 244 copies). This revised edition contains about five thousand entries (the old numbers are retained and provided with coefficients), many appendices (none had appeared in the first edition), and upwards of 1000 illustrations. Lorenzo Monaco, Maestro di Bambino Vispo, and Spinello Aretino are among painters who appear for the first time in this second edition. ¶ From the library of Denys Sutton (1917-1991), editor of Apollo Magazine (1962-1987), inscribed by him and dated 1939 (Bloomsbury Book Auctions, Catalogue of the Art Reference Library of the Late Denys Sutton CBE, 13 February and 26 March 1992, lot 250). Dust jacket lacking for volume III; jackets of volumes I-II chipped and torn, with small losses. Otherwise an excellent copy.
London & New York, Phaidon Press / Oxford University Press, 1944
(30 cm), 78, [88] pp., 9 text illustrations (figs.1-9), 142 “plates” (pls.1-147). Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. - 778 catalogue entries. The collection was assembled in the 18th century and reflects the prevailing taste for complete, “finished” drawings, and for landscapes. ¶ Dust jacket rubbed, small losses. Very good, unmarked copy.
(30 cm), 187 (1) pp., including 69 large black & white plates, 72 text illustrations. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. - 1758 catalogue entries, the greater part of the painter’s surviving drawings. Domenichino had bequeathed the entire contents of his studio to his pupil, Francesco Raspantino, who disposed of the bulk of the collection to the painter Carlo Maratti. In 1703, Maratti sold the drawings to Giovanni Francesco Albani, Pope Clement XI, and they were preserved as part of the Albani collection until purchased by James Adam in 1762 for King George III. ¶ Endpaper inscribed in pencil by Denys Sutton (1917-1991), editor of Apollo magazine (1962-1987); Bloomsbury Book Auctions, Catalogue of the art reference library of the late Denys Sutton CBE (the first portion), London, 13 February 1992, lot 252. Good copy.
(30 cm), 390 pp., 176 plates (pls.1-176), 226 text illustrations (figs.1-226). Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket (Brodart dust jacket protector). - 1207 catalogue entries. First edition. ¶ Endpaper inscribed in pencil by Denys Sutton (1917-1991), editor of Apollo magazine (1962-1987): Denys Sutton 1950. A few spots of foxing on lower endpaper and fore-edge. Very good copy.
London, British Museum / British Museum Publications Limited, 1950-1983
Five parts in nine volumes (25 cm), uniformly bound in publisher’s cloth, pictorial dust jackets. - First editions, except for part II (Michelangelo and his studio) in reprint of 1953 edition, published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the artist’s birth. Not included is part [6] Roman Baroque drawings, c. 1620 to c. 1700, by Nicholas Turner, with the assistance of Rhoda Eitel-Porter, published in 1999 (can be supplied separately, price approximately £90). ¶ Excellent, unmarked copies.
(24 × 17 cm), 30 (2) pp., [16] p. of plates. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - 106 entries (of which 30 illustrated). First edition. ¶ From the library of Joseph Clemens, Prinz von Bayern (1902-1990), sold by Schneider-Henn, Kunstbücher und Dokumentation aus der Bibliothek Joseph Clemens Prinz von Bayern, Munich, 11-12 May 1992, lot 729. Very good copy.
(30 cm), viii, 127 pp., 65 plates and 36 text illustrations. Publisher’s cloth, pictorial dust jacket. - The drawings of Della Bella are arranged by subject (as in De Vesme’s catalogue of the artist’s etchings) and Blunt identifies a considerable number of studies for known etchings. The drawings by Castiglione at Windsor all came from Consul Smith, who had obtained many of them from the leading dilettante, Francesco Algarotti, or from the Salgredo family, who had patronised Castiglione in Venice. ¶ Fine copy.
(20.5 cm), xiii, 113 pp., [16] leaves of plates. 108 catalogue entries. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - Catalogue for an exhibition centred on a group of 86 architectural drawings by Fuga for projects in Rome, from 1722 until 1751. Drawings by Fuga of ephemeral constructions (macchine for fireworks and catafalques) are included. Also shown were drawings by lesser contemporaries: Luigi Vanvitelli, Giovanni Antinori, Giacinto Ballerini, Filippo Cesari, and G.A. Bianchi; nearly half the exhibited works are reproduced. “The catalogue provides the material for a complete reassessment of the achievement of Fuga, whose anti-baroque, proto-neo-classic style emerges as having its source in his birthplace Florence rather than Rome, the city of his adoption… [It] will be of permanent value to anyone interested in Roman architecture of the first half of the eighteenth century, a subject which has at present received very little attention” (from a notice by F.J.B. Watson, in The Burlington Magazine, volume 98, August 1956, pp.287-288). ¶ From the library of Joseph Clemens, Prinz von Bayern (1902-1990), sold by Schneider-Henn, Kunstbücher und Dokumentation aus der Bibliothek Joseph Clemens Prinz von Bayern, Munich, 11-12 May 1992, lot 894. Clean tear in lower wrapper (2 cm).
(22 cm), 43 (1) pp., [8] p. of plates. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - Exhibition of drawings from the collections of the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, by some fifteen Italian and French artists, including Primaticcio, Bérain and his studio, d’Olivet, Henry Gissey, and Carlo Vigarini. Two scale models of the Charles XII Theatre at the King’s House, Stockholm, and of the Palace Theatre, Drottningholm, also were exhibited. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy.
(30 cm), 212 pp., illustrations. Publisher’s red cloth, pictorial dust jacket. - The “Venetian caricatures” are catalogued by Edward Croft-Murray. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy.
(30 cm), (2) 197 (1) pp., with 120 text illustrations (figs.1-120), 66 plates (pls.1-66. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. - “All the major artists of the seventeenth century are represented by fine, in some cases unparalleled, groups of drawings; and there is hardly even a minor painter who does not figure in the collection, usually with drawings which can be related to known works” (from the Introduction, p.11). 1085 catalogue entries (nos. 1006-1085 describe anonymous drawings). ¶ Dust jacket lacking. Very good, unmarked copy.
(30 cm), (2) 197 (1) pp., with 120 text illustrations (figs.1-120), 66 plates (pls.1-66. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. - “All the major artists of the seventeenth century are represented by fine, in some cases unparalleled, groups of drawings; and there is hardly even a minor painter who does not figure in the collection, usually with drawings which can be related to known works” (from the Introduction, p.11). 1085 catalogue entries (nos. 1006-1085 describe anonymous drawings). ¶ Very good, unmarked copy.