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'.