Les Images Ou Tableaux De Platte Peinture Des Deus Philostrates Sophistes Grecs Et Les Statues De Callistrate Mis en Francois par Blaise de Vigenere Bourbonnois Enrichis d'Arguments et Annotations Reveus et corrigez sur l'original par un docte personnage de ce temps en la langue Grecque Et Representez En Taille Douce en cette nouvelle edition Avec des Epigrammes sur chacun d'iceux par Artus Thomas Sieur d'Embry.
A Paris: Chez Mathieu Guillemot, ruë Sainct Jaques a la bibliotecque, 1637
Physical Description
[16], 921, [47] p., engr. t-pl., [2] pl.: [66] illus.; 396 mm. (Folio, in sixes).
General Note
The two plates (illustrating the Icones and the Heroicus of the second Philostratus) have the same format as the other full-page illustrations found throughout the book but have blank versos. One is bound in between pages 602 and 603 but is assigned a page-number 601; the other is bound in between pages 758 and 759 but has been assigned a page-number 757. Page 503 is misnumbered as 505; 532 as 552; 578 as 576; 622 as 612; 650 as 950; 656 as 666; 689 as 989.
Contents
[Engr. t.-pl., dedic.] - Advertissement Sur Les Iamges Ou Tableaux De Philostrate - Les Tableaux Du Premier (Second) Livre - [Translation of Icones of of Philostratus, with notes and 65 illus.] - La Suitte De Philostrate [translation of Icones and Heroicus of the other Philostratus, with notes and 2 pl.] - Les Statues De Callistrate [translation, notes, 1 illus.] - Privilege Du Roy (1609); Extrait Des Registres De Parlement (1609) - Table Des Choses Remarquables ... .
Responsibility Note
Of the two plates assigned to the Icones and Heroicus of the second Philostratus one is signed as made by Iaspar Isac, and the other as designed by Anthoine Charon and engraved by Thomas de Leu. The one full-page illustration assigned to Callistratus is signed as designed by Anthon. Caron and engraved by L. Gaultier. Of the 65 full-page illustrations assigned to the first Philostratus most are unsigned, but some are signed as designed by Antoine Caron, and some carry the name of the engraver - Thomas de Leu, Iaspar Isac or L. Gaultier. The two small illustrations on pages 84, 85, the headpieces, tailpieces and decorated initials are unsigned.
The publication is dedicated by 'F. De Louvain veufue D'Abel L'Angelier' to Henry De Bourbon, Prince De Condé.
References
A. Adams, S. Rawles, A. Saunders, A Bibliography Of French Emblem Books (2 v., 1999-2002), vol. II. no. F.484, p.309-11; J. Landwehr, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese books of Devices and Emblems, 1534-1827 (1976), p.588.
R. H. Webb, The transmission of the 'Eicones' of Philostratos and the development of 'ekphrasis' from the antiquity to the Renaissance [dissertation] (London, 1992); F. Goethe, Philostrats Gemaelde (1808).
Modern studies of Greek mythology in art include: Mythes grecs au figuré: de l'antiquité au baroque (1996), H.A. Shapiro, Myth into art: poet and painter in classical Greece (1994), S. Goldhill and R. Osborne, edd., Art and text in ancient Greek culture (1994).
Summary Note
This edition is a resetting of that of 1629/30, with changes in the engraved title-plate indicating the new date and names of booksellers. It uses the same engravings as in the 1614/15 edition. The illustration on p.872 carries the date 1609.
The Icones of Philostratus the elder and those of his younger relative and name-sake provide us with detailed rhetorical descriptions of incidents in Greek mythology as depicted by ancient artists or as the author imagined they might be depicted. The elder Philostratus particularly values realistic representation and dramatic contrasts between a central personage and surrounding figures; the younger is also concerned with the expression of emotion (he includes Medea and Marsyas among his subjects). From the time of the classical revival in the 15th century these works were of great interest to artists and historians of art. After the discovery of the wall-paintings of Herculaneum, Pompeii and other ancient sites, which revealed actual examples of the subjects presented imaginatively by Philostratus (for example, Achilles and Cheiron, Perseus and Andromeda, Narcissus, Heracles and the pygmies), their historical usefulness was confirmed; and they are cited in the art-theoretic works of Winkelmann and Goethe.
The plates show attempted reconstructions of some of the scenes described in the texts. Sixty-five full-page illustrations are assigned to the Icones of the first Philostratus; two plates to the Icones and Heroicus of the second Philostratus; and one full-page illustration to the Descriptiones or Statuae of Callistratus.
Provenance
This book belongs to a group of about ten duplicates from the Royal Library that were evidently presented privately to the Academy, most probably through King George III's Librarian Richard Dalton early in 1769, during the period when expenditure on books for the Academy's fledgling Library was being met directly from the royal Privy Purse. Recorded in A Catalogue of the Library in the Royal Academy, London, 1802, p. 22).
Copy Note
An armorial bookplate, showing the royal arms of Britain and lettered 'G III R', has been pasted onto the verso of the title-page. A tear has caused the loss of some of the illustration on page 486 and some of the text on page 485.
Binding Note
20th-century half calf, marbled-papered boards; green morocco spine-label lettered 'Les Images Des Deux Philost: Sophist Grecs', spine lettered 'Paris 1637' and 'R.A.'
Subject
Mythology, Greek - Iconography
Paintings, European - Paintings, Greek - History
Art history - Art criticism - Greek literature - Ekphrasis - 4th century B.C. - 3rd century
Translations into French - Translations from Greek - France - 17th century
Pictorial works - France - 17th century