ARCO, comte Carlo d' - Lot 135

ARCO, comte Carlo d' Monumenti di Pittura e Scultura trascelti in Mantova o nel suo Territorio. Mantua, dalla tipografia Virgiliana, 1827 A GOOD EXAMPLE IN PUBLISHER'S BOND OF A BOOK ESSENTIAL TO THE HISTORY OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN MANTUA ORIGINAL EDITION In folio (400 x 270 mm) COLLATION: 2 ff., 52 pp., 1 f. ILLUSTRATION: 24 hors texte plates engraved by the author after Benvenuto Cellini, Lanfranco Puzzi, Luigi Bustaffa. Included are works by Mantegna, Benvenuto Tisi, Carracci's Saint Margaret, Cellini's bacile, various bas-reliefs, funerary monuments such as that of Baldassare Castiglione, and frescoes such as that by Giulio Romano in Casa Biondi. ANNOTATION: handwritten number 138 in brown ink on the upper cover and in the left corner of the first cover. CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Pink publisher's boards, title printed in black on the upper cover and set in a large neoclassical frame. A fine large-format publication on the masterpieces of painting and sculpture preserved in the city of Mantua, where the author was originally from. Carlo d'Arco (1799-1872) was himself an artist and art critic. This is his first book, which he illustrated himself. Each illustration of a work of art is accompanied by a lengthy historical commentary. Arco is most famous for having published, in 1838, remarkable works on Giulio Romano (Istoria della vita e delle opere di Giulio Pippi Romano) and, in 1857-1859, an important history of his city of Mantua (Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova. Notizie raccolte ed illustrate con disegni e con monumenti). An engraving enthusiast, he also studied the practice of printmaking in Mantegna's time (Di cinque valenti incisori mantovani del secolo XVI e delle stampe da loro operate, Mantua, 1850). No copy on ABPC. BIBLIOGRAPHY: missing from Getty Research Institute