FANTI, Vicenzo - Lot 79

FANTI, Vicenzo Descrizzione completa di tutto ciò che ritrovasi nella galleria di pittura e scultura di S.A. Giuseppe Wenceslao, principe della casa di Lichtenstein Vienna, Giovanni Tommaso de Trattern, 1767 THE FIRST CATALOG, PRINTED IN ITALIAN, OF THE IMMENSE COLLECTION OF THE PRINCES OF LIECHTENSTEIN. RARE MUSEUM CATALOGUE ORIGINAL EDITION In-4 (230 x 190 mm). Vignette at the head of the catalogue, and four decorative plates. COLLATION AND ILLUSTRATION: 3 ff. n.e., 107 pp. ; 144 pp. 8 ff. n.e. ; 1 folding engraving hors-texte engraved in intaglio by Jacob Schlmulzer after Vincenzo Fanti. CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Fawn half-basane, red speckled edges. Modern cover and slipcase. Binding worn and missing, one plate disbound, some spotting. This description is the work of Italian painter Vincenzo Fanti (1719-1776). After studying with Altomonte, he moved to Rome and Turin. In 1744, he returned to Vienna to become drawing master to the imperial family, then superintendent of the Liechtenstein Gallery, then owned by Prince Johann Wenzell I. The Royal Gallery in Florence has a self-portrait of him. Another self-portrait, showing Fanti holding the manuscript of this Descrizzione, recently entered the princely Liechtenstein collections. The work was published in 1767, the year in which the collections were reorganized. It begins with a brief treatise "Della Pittura in generale", followed by a description of the beautiful palace that housed the collection, an important work by the Italian architect Domenico Martinelli (1650-1718). In 1715, at the request of Prince Eugene of Savoy, Vincenzo Fanti collaborated with Carlone (1686-1775) on the decoration of the Belvedere Palace and with Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654-1730) on the Karlskirche in Vienna. He was subsequently appointed Director of the Liechtenstein Palace Painting Gallery by Prince Joseph Wenzel I of Liechtenstein. In this capacity, he reorganized the Princely Gallery and published this important catalog. The famous Liechtenstein Gallery, begun in 1692 and completed in 1700, was built for Prince John Dam of Liechtenstein (1662-1712) in the immediate vicinity of Imperial Vienna. It was this Prince who acquired the famous Rubens. Shortly afterwards, Martinelli built the Liechtenstein Palace itself, located on Bankgasse, i.e. in the city itself. The transfer of the collections from the Bankgasse palace to the Galerie des Faubourgs did not take place until 1807, so Fanti's topographical description provides us with rare evidence of the arrangement of the collections, which has now disappeared. The paintings and sculptures are described piece by piece; each work is precisely measured, and we can guess at their accumulation. The second part of the book contains nearly two hundred pages of artist biographies. At the end of each page, Fanti provides relatively precise bibliographical references to the great texts of art history (Vasari, Sandrart, Félibien, etc.). One of the last pages of the book contains a valuable list of the canonical authors consulted by Vincenzo Fanti, as a token of scientific seriousness.