print; book

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Object Type: print; book
Museum number: 1936,1105.16.1-139
Title: Series: Imitations of Ancient and Modern Drawings
Description: A series of one-hundred-and-thirty-nine prints by Metz after drawings by Old Masters and modern artists, bound in a book; includes - a plate after a drawing by an anonymous Greek artist of the 10th century - a plate after the school of Cimabue - one after Giotto - one after Giotto and Vasari - one after Simone Martini - one after Piero della Francesca - one after Baldovinetti - one after Stefano Fiorentino - one after Filippo Lippi - one after Masaccio - one after Giovanni Bellini - one after Antonio Pollaiuolo, which also includes two designs after Botticelli - three after Perugino - one anonymous (Christ embracing St John the Baptist) - one after Ghirlandaio - one after Francesco Francia - two after Mantegna - one after Lorenzo di Credi - one after Jan van Eyck - nine after Fra Bartolommeo - four after Dürer - six after Michelangelo - two after Titian - one after Giovanni da Udine - one after Baccio Bandinelli - one after Benvenuto Garofalo - twelve after Raphael - one after Primaticcio - one after Polidoro ("retouched by Rubens" according to the inscription) - six after Giulio Romano - one after Lucas van Leyden - two after Correggio - three after Battista Franco - two after Hans Holbein - one after Benvenuto Cellini - one after Perino del Vaga - one after Girolamo da Carpi - nineteen after Parmigianino - one after Daniele da Volterra - one after Vasari - one after Tintoretto - one after an unnamed artist (a preaching monk saint; after Jacopo Vignali, according to an annotation in pencil) - one after Paolo Farinati - two after Barocci - two afte Taddeo Zuccaro - one after Paolo Veronese - one after Palma Vecchio - one after Raffaellino da Reggio - one after Palma Giovane - one after Lodovico Carracci - one after Cigali - four after Annibale Carracci - one after Caravaggio - two after Guido Reni - one after Rubens - one after Domenichino - one after Leonardo - two after Pietro da Cortona - one after Bernini - one after Van Dyck - one after Diepenbeck (with a design after Dürer on the same plate) - one after Pietro Testa - one after Carlo Maratti - two after Carlo Cignani - one after Guercino - one after Luca Giordano - two after Ciro Ferri - one after Sir James Thornhill - one after Solimena - one after Cipriani - two after La Fage Some of the plates consist of several individual designs The plates are preceded by several pages of printed text: a title-page, a dedication to Benjamin West, and a chronological account in English and in French; second edition of the series, published in 1798 Aquatint, crayon-manner, etching; some printed in colour
Producer name: Print made by: Conrad Martin Metz; After: Giovanni Cimabue; After: Giotto; After: Giorgio Vasari; After: Simone Martini; After: Piero della Francesca; After: Alesso Baldovinetti; After: Stefano Fiorentino; After: Fra Filippo Lippi; After: Masaccio; After: Giovanni Bellini; After: Antonio Pollaiuolo; After: Sandro Botticelli; After: Pietro Perugino; After: Domenico Ghirlandaio; After: Francesco Francia; After: Andrea Mantegna; After: Lorenzo di Credi; After: Jan van Eyck; After: Fra Bartolommeo; After: Albrecht Dürer; After: Michelangelo; After: Titian; After: Giovanni da Udine; After: Baccio Bandinelli; After: Benvenuto Garofalo; After: Raphael; After: Francesco Primaticcio; After: Polidoro da Caravaggio; After: Peter Paul Rubens; After: Lucas van Leyden; After: Battista Franco; After: Benvenuto Cellini; After: Girolamo da Carpi; After: Jacopo Tintoretto; After: Jacopo Vignali; After: Paolo Farinati; After: Federico Barocci; After: Taddeo Zuccaro; After: Palma Vecchio; After: Raffaellino da Reggio; After: Palma Giovane; After: Lodovico Cigoli; After: Annibale Carracci; After: Michelangelo da Caravaggio; After: Guido Reni; After: Domenichino; After: Leonardo da Vinci; After: Pietro da Cortona; After: Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini; After: Anthony van Dyck; After: Pietro Testa; After: Carlo Maratti; After: Carlo Cignani; After: Guercino; After: Luca Giordano; After: Ciro Ferri; After: Sir James Thornhill; After: Francesco Solimena; After: Giovanni Battista Cipriani
School/style: British; Italian; Flemish; German; Dutch
Production date: 1789-1798
Production place: Published in: London (England)
Materials
Technique: etching; aquatint; crayon-manner
Dimensions: Height: 567 millimetres (sheet size); Width: 417 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: This is a complete copy of the series of plates by Metz reproducing drawings by Old Masters and modern artists as published in 1798. There is an earlier edition with few plates and a titleplate dated 1789 (for a bound album of the first edition, see 1912,1014.133.1-91). The second expanded edition of 1798 has a letterpress titlepage and a prefatory listing of the artists included. The BM holds a second complete set of the 1798 edition, now disbound (see 1855,0609.812-978). The prints are all printed on the pages of the book, which is bound in red leather. A gilted inscription lettered on the spine reads "Imitations of ancient & modern drawings - Metz". The attributions are given as they appear on the plates. They do not necessarily reflect recent scholarship. Some of the plates also reproduce the collector's mark that would have been stamped on the original drawing; see for instance 1936,1105.16.3 (the Navicella in St Peter's) with the marks of Sir Joshua Reynolds (Lugt 2364) and Jonathan Richardson Sr. (Lugt 2183).
Location: Not on display
Subjects: angel; boat/ship; christian saint/martyr; figure study; teachings of christ; nativity; pieta; virgin and child with saints; allegory/personification; coronation of virgin; woman of samaria; classical mythological figure/creature; birth of virgin; hunting/shooting; grotesque; classical mythology; arrest in garden; battle; sacrifice; mass; christ at emmaus; old testament; virgin and child with baptist; ancient history; procession; drunkenness; dragon; resurrection; crucifixion; assumption of virgin; adoration of magi; incredulity of st thomas; adoration of shepherds; massacre of innocents; return of the holy family from egypt
Associated names: Representation of: St Luke; Representation of: Jesus Christ; Representation of: Apostles; Portrait of: Pope Clement V; Representation of: Virgin Mary; Representation of: St John the Baptist (Prodromos); Representation of: Holy Family; Representation of: St Joseph; Representation of: Woman of Samaria; Representation of: Herakles/Hercules; Representation of: Arion; Representation of: Nemean Lion; Representation of: Adam; Representation of: Eve; Representation of: Leda; Representation of: Zeus/Jupiter; Representation of: Alexander the Great; Representation of: Roxane; Representation of: Silenos; Representation of: Arachne; Representation of: Andromeda; Representation of: Perseus; Representation of: Adonis; Representation of: Pope Julius II; Representation of: Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara; Representation of: Constantine the Great; Representation of: King David; Representation of: Goliath; Representation of: Hera/Juno; Representation of: Hermes/Mercury; Representation of: God; Representation of: Magi; Representation of: St Jerome; Representation of: St Benedict of Nursia; Representation of: Totila (Baduila); Representation of: St Francis of Assisi; Representation of: Archangel Michael; Representation of: Phaethon; Representation of: Lazarus; Representation of: Dives; Representation of: Artemis/Diana; Representation of: Endymion; Representation of: Thetis; Representation of: Hephaistos/Vulcan; Associated with: Sir Joshua Reynolds; Associated with: Benjamin West; Associated with: George III, King of the United Kingdom; Associated with: Richard Dalton; Associated with: Richard Cosway; Associated with: Sir Abraham Hume, 2nd Baronet; Associated with: Richard Payne Knight; Associated with: Paul Sandby; Associated with: William Hodges; Associated with: Robert Udny; Associated with: Sir Arthur Harrington Champernowne; Associated with: Alleyne Fitzherbert, Baron St Helens; Associated with: Philippe Joseph Tassaert
Associated places: Associated with: Sistine Chapel
Associated events: Associated Event: Battle of the Milvian Bridge 312
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1936
Acquisition notes: Various inscriptions annotated on the title page read, respectively: "WBeechey" (in pencil), "B. Archer-Burton / Inner Temp[..]" (in brown ink); "John Stuart Callert" (in brown ink).
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1936,1105.16.1-139

Free entry

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