MARIETTE, Pierre-Jean - Lot 82

MARIETTE, Pierre-Jean Description des travaux qui ont précédé, accompagné et suivi la fonte en bronze d'un seul jet de la statue équestre de Louis XV, le Bien-aimé, dressé sur les Mémoires de M. Lempereur, ancien Échevin Paris, de l'Imprimerie de P. G. Le Mercier, 1768 [but published in 1772]. A MOMENT IN FRENCH ART. AN ASTONISHING ALLIANCE OF ART AND TECHNIQUE IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT, IN PRAISE OF A KING WHO WAS BELOVED IN 1748 BUT DETESTED IN 1763, WHEN THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE WAS INSTALLED IN THE PLACE LOUIS XV, ONLY TO BE OVERTURNED DURING THE REVOLUTION. EXEMPLAIRE DU DUC D'AIGUILLON, ONE OF THE GREATEST FORTUNES OF FRANCE, GOVERNOR OF BRITTANY AND MINISTER TO LOUIS XV, OF WHOM HE WAS NO FRIEND ORIGINAL EDITION In-folio (555 x 390 mm). Large vignette on the title page and an initial both drawn and engraved on copper by Augustin de Saint-Aubin. A large headband designed by Hubert-François Gravelot and engraved on copper by Saint-Aubin. Woodcut capitals. Foreword on the Art of melting metals (9 pp.) COLLATION: (2) ff., X-166 pp. ILLUSTRATION: 59 engraved plates by Pierre Patte, including 4 fold-outs, after drawings by Mullard, including the plate depicting the equestrian statue executed by Prévost. CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Speckled calf, gilt decoration, arms in the center of the boards, fleur-de-lys in the corners, frieze and roulette framing, ornate ribbed spine, gilt edges, witnesses preserved. PROVENANCE : Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc d'Aiguillon and Peer de France (arms; cf. OHR, IV, pl. 411), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs -- Count Carlo Caissotti di Chiusano (1754-1831; gilt supralibris above the Richelieu arms and handwritten bookplate in ink "Caissotti"). A military man before the Revolution, and a deputy for Piedmont in Paris under the imperial administration, Caissoti di Chiusano was a famous bibliophile whose library of 6,676 works was dispersed post mortem at marked prices by a Turin bookseller - probably Count Giacomo Mellerio (1777-1847). A man of great wealth and a high dignitary in Lombardy, he owned a library of over 10,000 works -- by inheritance: Count Ercole Cavazzi della Somaglia (1806-1857; armorial and engraved bookplate, glued to the flyleaf, with the motto Meminisse iuvat), son of Count Giacomo Mellerio's sister. A small crease in the lower right-hand corner of the title page, some leaves very slightly browned. Old restorations on spine and upper board. This monumental work tells the story of the creation of the equestrian statue of Louis XV, commissioned from sculptor Edme Bouchardon (1698-1762) by the city of Paris in 1748. It was commissioned by the city of Paris to honor the sovereign for the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which put an end to the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). A true technical feat, this statue was erected on today's Place de la Concorde and destroyed during the Revolution, like most royal effigies. After Bouchardon's death in 1762, the statue was completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In 18th-century France, it was the most visible work of art (erected on the Place Louis XV), the most expensive (costing almost two million pounds) and the one that required the greatest effort to complete, taking over twenty years. Bouchardon devoted the last fourteen years of his life to the project, preparing every step of the way: more than four hundred drawings from his pen bear witness to his meticulous attention to detail. He received the enormous sum of 260,000 livres and an apartment near the workshop. Pierre-Jean Mariette, a close friend of Bouchardon, was a central figure in the Paris art market. His text was intended to demonstrate to future generations the immense progress made in the art of sculpture. Every detail of the process, from the construction of the workshop "at the end of the Faubourg du Roule" to the erection on Place de la Concorde, from the type of wood to the type of stone, is described in the text or in numerous illustrations whose resemblance to those in the Encyclopédie is striking. These various stages and details were recently illustrated by an astonishing film posted on youtube entitled Casting a monument to Louis XV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqGPeR9mQp4), which served as an accompaniment for children to exhibitions at the Louvre and the Getty. Adults will undoubtedly enjoy acquiring a remarkable example of this moment in French art. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Brunet, III, col. 1429 -- Cohen-de Ricci 684, cites only one notable copy of this work, the one in red morocco with the arms of the Prince de Condé -- Cicognara, II, 3524 -- V. Kobi, "Écrire l'œuvre d'art. La statue équestre de Louis XV selon Pierre-Je