Detail View: Catena-Historic Gardens and Landscapes Archive: Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile
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Collection:
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Catena-Historic Gardens and Landscapes Archive
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Image No.:
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200092
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Title:
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Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile
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View:
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[The first triumph]
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Dates:
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1561
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Location:
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Europe--France--Ile-de-France--Paris
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Location Type:
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Creation
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Culture:
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French
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Period:
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Renaissance
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Creator:
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author
Colonna, Francesco
Attributed
1433/34-1527
Italian
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Materials:
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paper
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Techniques:
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woodcut (process)
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Measurements:
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33.8 x 22.2 cm
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Repository:
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New York, NY, USA, Private Collection, New York
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Category:
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Villas
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Work Type:
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Books
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Subjects:
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Romances; Pleasure gardens; Dreams; Triumphs; Processions; Muses (Greek deities); Centaurs; Births; Music; Mythology
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Work Notes:
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Collation: a6 A-Bb6 Cc8 = 164 ff., complete. With engraved woodcut title-page and 181 woodcuts illustrating the text, of which 13 are full-page, several crible initials in preliminary text, large 9-line floriated arabesque initials forming an acrostic throughout, Kerver's unicorn device (Renouard 515) on verso of final leaf. Folio, 338 x 222 mm, bound in nineteenth-century calf, marbled endpapers.
A superb French Edition of the most famous illustrated book of the Renaissance. A large number of these magnificent illustrations are dedicated to gardens. The designer of the original 1499 Aldus woodcuts remains unidentified although speculation has included artists such as Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. Nor has the author of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili been identified with certainty. It was probably written by Francesco Colonna, a Dominican from Treviso, in Latin about 1445. Its two main themes are the allegorical dream-journey of Poliphilus in search of his love Polia, and the praise of Antique art and culture.
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Image Notes:
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" The following triumph was no less marvellous than the first, for it had all four wheels - spokes, hub, and all - made from dark agate beautifully variegated with white veins. This certainly outdid King Pyrrhus's agate, which nature had impressed with the nine Muses and Apollo playing in their midst.
The axle and the form of this one resembled the first, but its sides were made from dark-blue oriental sapphire sprinkled with gold flecks, well suited for magic and most acceptable to Cupid when worn on the left hand."
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Rights Type:
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fair use
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