author Colonna, Francesco Attributed 1433/34-1527 Italian
Creator
Materials:
paper
WorkMaterialDescript ion
paper
Materials
Techniques:
woodcut (process)
WorkTechniqueDescrip tion
woodcut (process)
Techniques
Measurements:
33.8 x 22.2 cm
WorkMeasurementValue Text
33.8 x 22.2 cm
Measurements
Repository:
New York, NY, USA, Private Collection, New York
WorkRepositoryName
New York, NY, USA, Private Collection, New York
Repository
Category:
Villas
WorkCategory
Villas
Category
Work Type:
Books
WorkTypeDescription
Books
Work Type
Subjects:
Romances; Pleasure gardens; Dreams; Ruins; Altars; Vases; Tombstones; Inscriptions; Death -- Symbolic aspects; Time --Mythology; Antiquarianism; Fragments
ReproSubjectDescript ion
Romances; Pleasure gardens; Dreams; Ruins; Altars; Vases; Tombstones; Inscriptions; Death -- Symbolic aspects; Time --Mythology; Antiquarianism; Fragments
Subjects
Work Notes:
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.
WorkNotes
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.
Work Notes
Image Notes:
"Here again I found part of a fine picture in bright mosaic, in which I could see a lady prostrated on a burning pyre and cruelly slaying herself, with nothing visible around her but some women's feet in shoes and some broken parts with a few draperies. All the rest had been destroyed by insatiable and greedy time, by antiquity, by winds, rains, and burning sun. The altar in this place was broken; the largest piece was the one with this inscription, which I discovered face downwards when I returned to it. Nearby I found an antique vase lying on the ground, made of alabaster stone, a pace and a half in height, with one of its handles missing and its body partly broken up to the mouth and partly whole."
ReproNotes
"Here again I found part of a fine picture in bright mosaic, in which I could see a lady prostrated on a burning pyre and cruelly slaying herself, with nothing visible around her but some women's feet in shoes and some broken parts with a few draperies. All the rest had been destroyed by insatiable and greedy time, by antiquity, by winds, rains, and burning sun. The altar in this place was broken; the largest piece was the one with this inscription, which I discovered face downwards when I returned to it. Nearby I found an antique vase lying on the ground, made of alabaster stone, a pace and a half in height, with one of its handles missing and its body partly broken up to the mouth and partly whole."
Image Notes
Rights Type:
fair use
ReproRightsDetails
fair use
Rights Type
Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile
