Details
Plate 9: lunettes from the Loggia di Psyche; to left, a putto with animals, including a giant salamander (?); at centre, Mercury carrying Psyche to Olympus; to right a putto with lion and a sea-horse; after Raphael. 1693
Etching
IFF 28
Nice handcoloured impressions.
A complete set of twelve engravings of Raphael’s frescoes of scenes from the myth of Cupid (also known as Eros) and Psyche in the Villa Farnesina in Rome. Raphael’s paintings illustrate part of the story The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius (the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety). In this work, Venus, jealous of a beautiful mortal girl named Psyche, sends Cupid on an errand to punish the girl. Cupid instead falls in love with Psyche, and after a series of secrets, betrayals, and trials, the lovers are reunited, and Psyche is made immortal. The frescoes are painted on the vaults and ceiling above demilune reserves on the ground floor at the end of the entrance hall, now known as the Loggia of Psyche. Images of leafy garlands of fruit accentuate the arches of the vaults, also framing the classical images. The frescoes were commissioned by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, called “magnifico” by his peers for his richly decorated villa and the elegant entertainments he hosted there. The paintings were recently restored and the Villa Farnesina is open to the public as a museum. Raphael was one of the three greatest artists of the Italian High Renaissance and an accomplished architect as well. As chief archeologist to the Pope, he was involved in the excavation of the ancient Golden House of Nero, and adapted many of the elaborate Roman frescoes he saw there in creating his own innovative painted wall and ceiling designs in the Vatican and private villas in Rome. Prints made after Raphael’s drawings, designs and paintings were produced during his lifetime by the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1470-1482 - c. 1527-1534). Raphael prints by other engravers were especially popular in the neoclassical period of the mid 18th century and early 19th century coinciding with the tremendous revival of interest in the classical art of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the classicism of the Renaissance. Some of these prints served as references for architects and designers because many were based on frescoes that had been incorporated into interior architecture. This interest in Raphael, often reflected in prints, continued throughout the 19th century as he achieved legendary status. Among the more famous prints after Raphael are series from the late 18th century illustrating his frescoes in the Vatican stanze (notably Picturae Raphaelis Sanctii Urbinatis,Rome: 1722); the Vatican loggia (notably Loggia di Rafaele nel Vaticano, Rome: 1772-77) and the Villa Farnesina in Rome (notably Psyches et Amoris Nuptiae ac Fabula, Rome: 1693). One popular set, variously issued as engravings and lithographs during the 19th century, shows details of Raphael’s allegorical frescoes of 12 hours of the day and night. A related set of engravings depicts the gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon riding in chariots in their heavenly domain, probably representing the seven days of the week. Nicolas Dorigny was a French artist who mainly worked as an engraver. Born into a family of artists, he was trained by his father, Michel Dorigny. He went to Italy to continue his studies and wound up staying 28 years. From there, he went to England and was commissioned by King Charles II to make engravings after the Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court, and stayed in London for 15 years. His eyesight began to fail him, so he retired to Paris in 1724. The following year, he was made an academician, and participated in the Paris Salons between 1739 and 1743. Giovanni Pietro Bellori was a distinguished Italian scholar of art history. He wrote numerous works on antiquarian subjects and a major biography of 17th century artists,
Additional Information
SKU | dor9 |
---|---|
Picture Size | 38 x 67,5 cm |
Specification | |
technic | Etching |
Artist | Nicolas Dorigny |
period | 17th century |
School | French |
subject | Mythology |
rating | **** |
Nicolas Dorigny (1658 - 1746)
Engraver, son of Michel. closely connected with Maratti; between 1711-24 in England to engrave the Raphael Cartoons (for which he was knighted); then returned to France, elected to the Academy in 1725. His eyesight failing, he took up painting and exhibited from 1739-43.
His education prepared him for the legal field, and he followed that profession until he was thirty years of age, when, as a result of deafness, he turned to the arts. Dorigny visited Italy, where he remained for twenty-eight years. His first plates were executed with the point. He is better known, however, for his technique unifying the point and the graver, characteristic of his later productions. He took for his model the admirable works of Gérard Audran. Although he may not have equalled that celebrated artist, either in the style of his drawing, or in the picturesque effect of his light and shade, his prints will always be esteemed both for their merit as engravings and for the importance of the subjects which he chose. In 1711 he was invited to England by Queen Anne to engrave the Cartoons of Raphael at Hampton Court, which he finished in 1719, and in the following year he was knighted by King George I. While he was in England he painted some portraits of the nobility, but with no great success. He returned to France in 1725, and was received into the Academy in the same year. He exhibited some pictures of sacred subjects at the Salon from 1739 to 1743, and died in Paris in 1746.
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