Desseins des meilleurs peintres d'Italie, d'Allemagne, et des Pays-Bas du Cabinet de Monsieur Paul de Praun à Nuremberg. Gravés d'après les Originaux par Jean Théophile Prestel, Peintre.

RA Collection: Book

Record number

03/2184

Imprint

A Nuremberg: chez l'Editeur, 1776.

Physical Description

18 pl. (incl. t.-pl.) (Pl. 6 is dble.; pl. 15, 16 are bound in reverse order); 709 mm.

Responsibility Note

All plates are signed as engraved by either Jean Théophile Prestel (nos. 2-4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18) or Marie Catherine Prestel (nos. 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16).

References

Kunst Des Sammelns: Das Praunscher Kabinett, ed. K. Löcher [exhibition catalogue] (1994).

A. Griffiths, 'Notes on early aquatint in England and France', in Print Quarterly, 4 (1987), p.255-70.

Summary Note

The publication-date of 1776 is repeated on most plates. One carries the date 1775 (pl. 13); six are undated (pl. 3, 10, 14-16, 18).

The Praun collection had been built by Paulus Praun (1548-1616), and was particularly rich in Italian drawings.

The plates show drawings by Corregio, Michelangelo, Raphael, Reni, Durer, Calvart, Giulio Romano, Caravaggio, Pontormo, Bigio, An. Carracci, Sabbatini and 'maitre inconnu'.

Most plates use the resin-ground aquatint technique - which spread rapidly throughout Europe during the last third of the eighteenth century, probably from France, where it had been used by F.P. Charpentier and J.B. Le Prince.

Provenance

Recorded in RAA Library, Catalogue, 1802.

Binding Note

20th-century red cloth; spine lettered 'Praun Gallery' and 'R.A. 1776'.

Name as Subject

Subject

Drawings, European
Collections - Germany - Nuremberg - 18th century
Pictorial works - Aquatints - Germany - 18th century

Contributors