‎GIUSTINIANI Vincenzo - Claude Mellan - Abraham Bloemaert - Duquesnoy - Lanfranco - Sandrart - Romanelli - Giovanni Andrea Podestà - Josse de Pape - PietroTesta - Natalis a.o. :‎
‎Galleria Giustiniana del Marchese Giustiniana - Parte Prima Tavole CLIII (Parte Secunda Tavole CLXVII).‎

‎" S.l.s.d. (Rome, 1636), private edition of Vincenzo Giustiniani, two in-folio albums with engravings, 54,5 x 37 cm. Album I; title + engraved introduction text (non numbered plate) + portrait of Vincenzo (numbered plate 2) + 150 plates numbered 3 - 152 + 8 plates (by Bloemaert, interpretations of paintings by Titian, Del Sarto a.o.). Album II; title + engraved introduction text (n.n.p.) + portrait of Iosephus G. (plate numbered 3) + 165 plates numbered 4-168 (some folding). Complete. Modern half leather with eggshell marbled boards, title pages a bit soiled and foxed, all other plates fine, untrimmed copy. Fine copy of an extraordinary important book in the history of European art. It is a collection of engraved plates illustrating the art collection of the Giustiniani family kept in their still extant palace in Rome. They amassed over 600 Roman & Greek statues, bas reliefs etc. It was the most important collection in early baroque Europe and it was Vincenzo's idea to illustrate this collection with this ''catalogue'' - the first illustrated art collection catalogue ever . The German artist Sandrart was commissioned to supervise the undertaking for which he engaged the foremost artists of his time, many of them non-Italian (see those mentioned in the title). When in 1983 a large part of the original plates were rediscovered in Genoa it was decided to place them in a purposely founded institute in Rome . This gave an enormous impulse to the study of t his collection whose remains were dispersed in the 18th and 19th century and found a place in all the main art collections of the world.."‎

Reference : 23604

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