Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
Catena-Historic Gardens and Landscapes Archive
Image No.:
200079
Title:
Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile
View:
[The queen's residence]
Dates:
1561
Location:
Europe--France--Ile- de-France--Paris
Location Type:
Creation
Culture:
French
Period:
Renaissance
Creator:
author
Colonna, Francesco
Attributed
1433/34-1527
Italian
Materials:
paper
Techniques:
woodcut (process)
Measurements:
33.8 x 22.2 cm
Repository:
New York, NY, USA, Private Collection, New York
Category:
Villas
Work Type:
Books
Subjects:
Romances; Pleasure gardens; Dreams; Queens; Royal palaces; Planets; Thrones; Wreaths (decoration)
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.
Image Notes:
"The pilasters or semi-square columns were four paces apart, making seven equal divisions (the number most favoured by nature) and were of fine oriental lapis-lazuli, its colour delightfully enhanced by a scattering of tiny sparkles of gold. The fronts of the pilasters between the enclosing wave-mouldings were exactly proportioned as to width and height, and marvellously carved with a charming assemblage of candelabra, foliage, cornucopias, little monsters, heads with leaves for hairs, putti whose extremities turned into scyllas, birds, baluster vases, all of extraordinary inventiveness and design, sculpted from top to bottom in relief as if detached from its flat background...The fourth wall, adjacent to the palace, was arranged like the others, except that the middle space was occupied by the door. The other six spaces corresponded and matched the rest, containing wreaths which showed the operation of the planetary virtues, arranged symmetrically with the planets on the opposite wall. These virtues were represented in the form of elegant nymphs with the titles and symbols of their effects. The seventh space, in the middle, contained the frontispiece or pointed arch above the door, and was directly opposite the seventh wreath that contained the planet Sol, which was raised above the others because that was where the Queen's throne was located."
Rights Type:
fair use

Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile