Antique Master Print-TOILET-VENUS-FOUNTAIN-ORNAMENTAL-Picart-c.1800

“Toilet of Venus” Venus, seated in her chariot, is cared for by the Three Graces. One of them holds up a mirror to her. A putto scatters roses over Venus. On the left a fountain and in the background a landscape. At the bottom of the margin, explanatory verses in French. Reversed copy.

Made by Bernard Picart after Annibale Carracci.

Medium: Etching on wove (vellin) paper.

Sheet size: 24.8 x 19.1 cm (9.76 x 7.52 inch). Image size: 24.8 x 18.4 cm. (9.76 x 7.24 inch).

Condition: good, given age. Light paper spots and remains of glue from previous attachment on rear. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully.

TOILET-VENUS-FOUNTAIN-ORNAMENTAL | PCO-C21-28

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Source: unknown, to be determined.

Biography artist: Bernard Picart or Picard (1673-1733), was a French draughtsman, engraver, and book illustrator in Amsterdam, who showed an interest in cultural and religious habits. Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. Painters working under Annibale at the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese would be highly influential in Roman painting for decades.