Les Proportions Du Corps Humain, Mesurées sur les plus belles Figures de l'Antiquité.

RA Collection: Book

Record number

03/2161

Imprint

A Paris,: Chez Girard Audran, Graveur du Roy, ruë S. Jacques, aux deux Piliers d'or., MDCLXXXIII. Avec Privilege Du Roy.

Physical Description

[8] p., 28, [2] pl.; 413 mm. (Folio).

General Note

In both the Academy's copies two unnumbered plates have been inserted before the numbered plates 27, 28, and the unnumbered plates have been numbered 27, 28 in ink and plates 27, 28 have had their engraved numbers altered in in ink to 29, 30.

[T.p.] - Preface - Avertissements; Extrait Du Privilege du Roy - [Pl. 1-30].

Responsibility Note

All plates are unsigned, apart from plates 27, 28 (altered in both Royal Academy copies to 29, 30), which are signed as designed by R. U(rbin). and engraved by G. Au.

Plate 1 carries the publisher's imprint of Audran; all others are engraved only 'Avec privilege (du Roi)' or similar.

References

E. Ranfft and A. Hughes, edd., Sculpture and its reproductions (1997); F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the antique: the lure of classical sculpture 1500-1900 (1982).

Summary Note

The plates are captioned and show the following statues, with their measurements:

1-4. Lacoon;

5-7. Farnese Hercules;

8-9. 'Pyrasme' [also known as 'Paetus and Arria' or a Gaul committing suicide];

10. 'terme Ouvrage Egyptien';

11-12. 'Antinous ... l'admirable' [Belvedere Antinous or Hermes];

13. 'La Paix des Grecs' [Castor and Pollux];

14. 'La Bergere Grecque' [Callipygian Venus];

15-16. 'Venus Aphrodite ... de Medicis';

17-20. 'Apollo pythien' [Apollo Belvedere];

21. 'fragment de l'antique';

22-23 'Mirmille' [Dying gladiator, or Dying Gaul];

24. 'grand enfant de Laocoon';

25. 'L'un des enfans de Laocoon';

26. [uncaptioned];

[27]. 'Parties du visage ... en la Statue d'Apollon Pythien';

[28]. 'parties du visage d'une Venus antique';

27, 28 (altered to '29', '30'). [uncaptioned; signed as drawn by Raphael].

The two plates showing 'Mirmille' are in reverse order, pl. 22 being captioned 'le meme' and pl. 23 'Mirmille'.

This work continued to be republished until 1855, and remained a standard manual for artists.

Provenance

The interleaved copy is inscribed in ink on the title page, 'Given by R. Yeo RA'; Yeo's presentation was acknowledged 2 September 1769 (RAA CM I, 40). This copy is the one recorded in A Catalogue Of The Library In The Royal Academy, London (1802).

The second copy is recorded in RAA Library, Catalogue, 1821.

Copy Note

[First, interleaved copy:] imperfect, lacking pl. 25. The blank leaf between pl. 2 and 3 carries carries a pencil drawing of a man in 18th-century clothes, seated and wearing a short apron; additional measurements have been indicated in ink on plates 3, 4, 17, 19.

Binding Note

[First, interleaved copy:] contemporary mottled calf; rebacked and recornered in 1997 by Clare Prince, retaining earlier darkened handwritten paper spine-label lettered 'Proportions du corps humain'.

[Second copy:] contemporary calf; gilt-decorated spine, red morocco spine-label lettered 'Prop Du Corps Huma'.

Name as Subject

Hercules (Roman deity)
Laocoön (legendary character)
Apollo (Greek deity)
Venus (Roman deity)

Subject

Sculpture, Greek - Statues - History
Anatomy, artistic - Proportion - History
Manuals - Pattern drawings - Instructional materials - France - 17th century
Pictorial works - France - 17th century