Les premiers elemens de la peinture pratique enrichis de figures de proportion mesurées sur l'antique, dessinées & gravées par J.B. Corneille peintre de l'Academie Royale.

(Piles, R. de).

About this Item

Paris, N. Langlois, 1684. With beautiful engraved frontispiece, vignette on title, one full-page engraving of an artist's easel and 8 engravings in the text showing a palette and other painter's requisite; 20 numbered plates engraved by J.B. Corneille showing nude gods and heros from antiquity with indication of proportions; and engraved title (bound in at the wrong place) and 30 plates engraved by Sebastien LeClerc, showing male nudes. 5 lvs., 96 pp. 12mo. Nice contemporary marbled calf, back with 5 raised bands and richly gilt compartments.*Cicognara No. 314 'piuttosto raro'. Not in Kat. Orn. Berlin. Rare first edition of this manual on painting. 'This treatise on painting had a tremendous influence in its time' (Birren, The history of colour in painting, 44-45). It contains the earliest known engraving of a palette, deals with colour, and gives explications, recipes, advices for artists. This manual by the French painter Roger de Piles (1635 - 1709) is 'one of the first and oldest books in France, which gives us information about the working methods of a painter of that period' (Schmid, The practice of painting, 47). The engraver Jean-Baptiste Corneille 'le jeune' (1649 - 1695) was a well-known painter and professor at the Académie Royale. The unnumbered plates are etchings by Sébastien LeClerc (1637 - 1714), the first of which bears the title: Figures d'académie pour aprendre a désiner, gravées par Sebastien LeClerc, Paris, N. Langlois, (no date). - Pasted inside front-cover the mid 19th century ex-libris of G. Martenet, featuring the motto "nunquam eris solus". Well preserved copy in a nice contemporary binding.[(5594)]. Seller Inventory # 5594

Bibliographic Details

Title: Les premiers elemens de la peinture pratique...

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition