Bodoni's Love Emblems

Lot 105
16.10.2020 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 2 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 411513
Lot 105 | Bodoni's Love Emblems
Estimate value
$ 2 000 – 4 000
ROSSI, Giovanni Gherardo de (1754-1827). Scherzi poetici e pittorici. Rome: 1784; and Parma: Bodoni, 1795.

Bodoni’s “very beautiful book” of love emblems (Brooks). Rossi, a friend of Goethe and inspired by German classicism, writes in his dedication that the illustrations of his poems are after the Portuguese painter José Teixeira Barreto. This issue closely resembles Brooks 599, colored all’Etrusca and without borders, but the engravings are slightly different than the ones Brooks attributes to Francesco Rosaspina. They are not signed, and the engraved title bears the imprint: “Roma, 1794.” Andresen suggests these engravings are the originals by Teixeira Barreto leftover from a very limited presentation edition; he also attributes the later engravings to Friedrich Rehberg rather than Rosaspina. The final emblem, depicting "Eufrosine ferita da Amore" may be a portrait of Rossi’s friend Angelika Kauffmann. See Brooks 599 and Andresen, Die deutschen Maler-Radirer (peintres-graveurs) des 19. Jahrhunderts, nach ihren Leben und Werken, Rehberg 14-54.

Quarto (294 x 215mm). Engraved title page and 40 engravings, all hand-colored in orange and black all’Etrusca (some light stains, mostly in the gutter). Contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt-stamped pomegranates in the corners of both boards, edges gilt (hinges neatly repaired). Provenance: two gift inscriptions on flyleaves dated 1809 and 1827).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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01.10.2020 – 16.10.2020
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