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; Love; Vertumnus and Pomona; Meadows; Spring (allegorical figure); Nymphs; Cornucopias; Abundance; Mythology; Harvest festivals
ReproSubjectDescript ion
Romances; Pleasure gardens; Dreams; Love; Vertumnus and Pomona; Meadows; Spring (allegorical figure); Nymphs; Cornucopias; Abundance; Mythology; Harvest festivals
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, upon the greenery of the flowering meadows and in the cool shades, I saw a great crowd gathered together of extraordinary people, such as are rarely seen. They were mingling merrily, clothed rustically in skins: some wore fawn-skins, spotted with white and painted, and others wore the skins of lynxes and panthers. Some wore the leaves of the banana tree over their naked flesh, others those of the flea-bane and Egyptian bean, the mixe, the greater ground-poplar, and other fronds with their various flowers and fruits. They had boots made from sorrel leaves with flowers woven in, and they were celebrating with religious dancing, clapping and jubliating. These were the Hamadryad nymphs and the vigorous Hymenides with their fragrant flowers, who were merrily leaping in front of flowered Vertumnus and on either side of him. .."
ReproNotes
"Here, upon the greenery of the flowering meadows and in the cool shades, I saw a great crowd gathered together of extraordinary people, such as are rarely seen. They were mingling merrily, clothed rustically in skins: some wore fawn-skins, spotted with white and painted, and others wore the skins of lynxes and panthers. Some wore the leaves of the banana tree over their naked flesh, others those of the flea-bane and Egyptian bean, the mixe, the greater ground-poplar, and other fronds with their various flowers and fruits. They had boots made from sorrel leaves with flowers woven in, and they were celebrating with religious dancing, clapping and jubliating. These were the Hamadryad nymphs and the vigorous Hymenides with their fragrant flowers, who were merrily leaping in front of flowered Vertumnus and on either side of him. .."
Image Notes
Rights Type:
fair use
ReproRightsDetails
fair use
Rights Type
Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile
