Date of Printing: 1693 • Medium: Copperplate Engraving (hand colored) • Subject Category: Mythological • Signed: Unsigned • Period Created: Baroque (1600 - 1699) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: 5.5 x 41 • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 37 x 46.5 • Style: FOLIO Original Vintage • Print on Verso: Blank on verso • Condition: Excellent, with minor toning at edges • Edition Type: 1st Edition - Limited • Paper Type: Laid Paper • Framed: Print only
Chorus of Bacchus and Ariadne, with other Ancient Greek gods and goddesses. Fine LARGE FOLIO hand colored engraving. This is the first version of this print (there is another 1693 version has a text box under the print, and is reversed in the image). The print is folded and bonded in the middle, a common practice for the period. From a book by Giovan Pietro Bellori.
Bachi Et Ariadne Chorus - This is a large copperplate engraving, made in 1692 by Pietro Santi Bartoli. The engraving is on one side, the other side is blank. This is a genuine antique print, not a reproduction. It is in very good condition, remarkable considering its age. The paper is subtle creamy white (less bright than shown in the scan). There is a trace of foxing predominantly at the edges of the paper, with minor spotting -- please see photos.
Bartoli was born in 1635 and died in Rome in 1700. He was a pupil of Poussin and is renowned for his engravings of Roman antiquities. He was responsible for several wonderful works on Roman sculpture and art, such as Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum of 1693, which is the source of this engraving. This work is a set of engravings of beautiful decorations found on ancient urns, vases, sarcophagi, wall paintings, tablets and monuments from almost thirty sites in Rome. Bartoli's engravings, and his notes engraved under many of them, were an important reference for Renaissance and later artists.
The beauty and elegance of these rare engravings is quite exceptional. They have a timeless quality, look magnificent framed and will become an increasingly valuable heirloom. We enjoyed attempting to translate enough of the Latin title of each print to give a sense of what it is depicting. Scholars of ancient Rome and Latin are also likely to enjoy the challenge of deciphering the rest of the Latin found on most of the prints.
Giovanni Pietro Bellori (15 January 1613 – 19 February 1696), also known as Giovan Pietro Bellori or Gian Pietro Bellori, was an Italian painter and antiquarian, but, more famously, a prominent biographer of artists of the 17th century, equivalent to Giorgio Vasari in the 16th century. His Lives of the Artists (Vite de'Pittori, Scultori et Architetti Moderni), published in 1672, was influential in consolidating and promoting the theoretical case for classical idealism in art. As an art historical biographer, he favoured classicising artists rather than Baroque artists to the extent of omitting some of the key artistic figures of 17th-century art altogether.