La Gallerie du Palais Du Luxembourg Peinte Par Rubens, Dessinée par les Ss. Nattier, et gravée Par les plus Illustres Graveurs du Temps. Dediée Au Roy
RA Collection: Book
Record number
03/2269
Imprint
Se Vend A Paris: chez le Sr. Duchange Graveur du Roy en son Academie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture ruë St. Jacques au dessus de la ruë des Mathurins. Avec Privilege de sa Majesté., 1710
Physical Description
[27] pl. (3 dble.); 590 mm. (Broadsheet).
Contents
[Engr. t.-pl.] - [ Engr. 'Avertissement'] - [24 pl. after Rubens] - [Port.].
Responsibility Note
All twenty-four plates after Rubens are signed as painted by Rubens and drawn by Nattier (usually J.M. Nattier, sometimes J.B. Nattier, occasionally I. Nattier, and once Jean Nattier). Each is signed by one of eleven engravers - I.B. Massé, G. Edelinck, L. de Chatillon, G. Duchange, A. Loir, J. Audran, A. Trouvain, B. Audran, B. Picart, C. Simonneau and C. Vermeulen.
Each plate also carries the publisher's imprint - of either Duchange or Nattier.
The portrait of Rubens is signed as painted by Van Dyck, drawn by J.M. Nattier, engraved by J. Audran and published by G. Duchange.
The writing of the title plate and engraved Avertissement is signed as by Berey.
References
RIBA, Early printed books, vol. 5 (2003), no. 4099, p.2781-2.
R.F. Millen and R.E. Wolf, Heroic deeds and mystic figures: a new reading of Rubens's Life of Marie de' Medici (1989); J. Thuillier, 'La Galerie de Marie de Médicis: peinture, poétique et politique', in Actes du Colloque Rubens, Florence, 1983, p. 249-66; J. Thuillier and J. Foucart, Rubens: la Galerie Médicis au palais du Luxembourg (1969); C. G. Voorhelm Schneevogt, Catalogue Des Estampes Gravées D'Après P. P. Rubens (1873).
Summary Note
The publication-date of 1710 appears also on Plate [9] and on the portrait of Rubens. Some plates carry earlier dates: plates [16] and [23]are dated 1709; [1] and [14], 1708; [15], 1707; [18], 1704. (The publication had first been announced in the Mercure in 1704.)
Rubens's cycle of paintings of the life of Marie de' Medici was installed in her new Palais du Luxembourg in 1625, and, like the contemporary Italian work which she commissioned, had a lasting impact on painting and art theory in France.
This was Gaspard Duchange's biggest publishing enterprise. Drawings of the paintings were begun by Nattier about 1703. Though Nattier worked chiefly as a portrait painter, he was often commissioned as a preparatory draughtsman for reproductive engravings, e.g. for Crozat's Cabinet and prints of Le Brun's decorations of the Galerie of Versailles.
Provenance
Presented by Nathaniel Hone RA, almost certainly well before the Academy's rejection in 1775 of his satirical painting 'The Conjuror', which was seen as a direct attack on Reynolds's borrowing of motifs from the Italian old masters.
This book was one of two that G. M. Moser, as the acting RA Librarian in 1781, dared to recommend to William Blake (at the time a student in the RA Schools) as more worthy of study than the works of Michelangelo and Raphael.
Copy Note
Title-plate inscribed in ink in an unidentified hand, 'Given by Nathanl. Hone to the Royal Academy'.
Binding Note
20th-century pink quarter morocco, black cloth-covered boards; gilt-decorated spine, lettered, 'Luxembourg Gallerie' and 'R.A.'
Paintings, European - Paintings, Belgian - Paintings, Flemish - Palaces, French - France - Paris - History - 17th century
Rulers - Publicizing - Publicity - France - 17th century
Pictorial works - France - 18th century