Three Colours White

Anyone who watched Saturday's A History of Art in Three Colours: White on BBC4 (while the British Isles were appropriately covered with snow) will be familiar with Dr James Fox's thesis:

-that J.J. Winckelman (1717-68), the pioneering art historian, saw the art of the ancient Greeks and Romans as the finest achievements of Western culture, and for Winckelman 'whiteness symbolised all of the qualities of ancient Greek civilization':

Winkelmann.
[n.d. c.1790.]
Stipple with large margins. Plate 235 x 184mm. 9¼ x 7¼". [Ref: 24841]   £60.00   (£72.00 incl.VAT)














-that while at the Vatican, as keeper of antiquities, he encountered the sculpture 'that would inspire him like no other', the Apollo Belvedere. The form of this statue is similar to the statue of Apollo shown here:

Apollo Pythonem jaculans. [Apollo shooting the Python.] To Dr. Richard Mead Physician to His Majesty. _ This Plate is humbly inscrib'd by his most oblig'd & obedient Servant R. Dalton.
R. Dalton fecit.
[n.d., c.1760.]
Etching, 530 x 375mm. 21 x 14¾". Horizontal crease through title.  
This statue is now part of the collection at the Villa Farnesina, Rome.
[Ref: 11825]   £280







-and that potter Josiah Wedgwood, 'a disciple of Winckelman...was determined to bring the white of antiquity into homes across the land':


Josiah Wedgwood Esqr. Done from an original Picture Painted in Enamel as large as Life.
George Stubbs pinxt. Geo: Townly Stubbs sculpt. Engraver to His R.H. the Prince of Wales.
London, Published Feby. 10. 1795, by Geo:Townly Stubbs, No.86 High Street, Marybone.
Stipple, rare. Plate 229 x 178mm. 9 x 7". Trimmed to platemark.  
This print was published by George Townly Stubbs within three months of Wedgwood's death in 1795 as a memorial, probably taken from the enamel in his father's studio.
Ex Collection: R. Hobson of Hove. Clayton: 97, ii/ii.
[Ref: 25468]   £320




The programme can currently be watched on BBC iPlayer- recommended for those who have not yet seen it.

Popular posts from this blog

Houghton

Image
The Houghton Revisited exhibition currently taking place at Houghton Hall in Norfolk provides the opportunity to see some of Robert Walpole's collection displayed in its original setting for the first time since Walpole's famous collection was sold to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1779. Like several other famous collections, the paintings in the Houghton collection were engraved and published, in an ambitious project organized by the Georgian print world's 'Commercial Maecenas' John Boydell, with the result that even after the paintings had left for Russia, they continued to exert great influence on British artists and connoisseurs in engraved form. Here we show a selection of engravings from paintings in the Walpole collection: This full-length portrait of Robert Walpole hung in his 'blue damask bed chamber', although like several of the prints in this list it is not part of the Houghton exhibition: Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford....
Read more

Women of the art world in our stock!

Image
Happy International Women's Day Everyone! We wanted to highlight some of the incredible women in our stock: Maria Maddalena Baldacci   Nicolaus Gualterius Philosopus et Medicus Collegiatus Florentinus Regice Academice Botanica Florentince Socius in Pisana Universitate. Medicince Professor Ordinarius IOANNIS GASTONIS M.D.Etrurice Archiater Maria Mad.Gozzj del. P.Ant.Pazzi fc. Engraving. 364 x 229mm. Gualteri, Nicolas: [1688-1744] Phycisian and Botanist, Professor of Medicine at Pisa. W: 1232-1 [Ref: 2789 ] £95.00   (£114.00 incl.VAT) Maria Maddalena Baldacci (1718–1782) (née Gozzi) was an Italian painter. She was born in Florence. She painted portrait miniatures and crayon, including the portrait of Empress Maria Theresa. A pupil of Giovanna Fratellini and, after her death, of Giovanni Domenico Campiglia. In 1742 she married the ...
Read more

Catalogue 136: For the London and Paris Print Fairs!

Image
  [''Old Man Wearing Velvet Cap'' or ''Old Man with Spectacles''.] Thos Frye, Pictor, Invenit & Sculpsit [c.1760]. Sold at the Golden Head of Red Lamp, near the Corner of Greville Street in Hatton Garden. Mezzotint, 515 x 365mm (20¼ x 14¼), with small margins. A fine impression of this magnificent image. Light foxing at the bottom, not in image. Very faint crease near left margin in the centre. A man wearing a velvet cap facing the right, his left side profile on show. He holds in his right hand a pair of spectacles. From Thomas Frye's (1710-62) set of mezzotint 17 life-size heads which he published in two series between 1760 and 1762 and for which he is chiefly remembered. Russell believes this could be a self-portrait or another artist that dwelled with Frye, 'Query, a portrait of Thomas Frye. On an impression in Mr. J. Holland's handwriting: "Mr Mellish a painter of shi...
Read more