Portrait of Michel Richard de Lalande in an Architectural Frame with Musical Instruments Simon Thomassin (French; 1654–1733) after the painting by Jean-Baptiste Santerre (French; 1651–1717) 1726 Engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Frontispiece to: Œuvres de Monsieur de Lalande
Inscribed in the cartouche: Mortels, C’est de ce beau Délire Que sontnez parmy vous ces accords si touchants, Á deux Divinitez Lalande doit ses Chants. Appollon le forma, C’est Louis que l’inspire.
On this day, the second of May, in 1568, Mary Stuart, aided by her jailor’s family, escaped after nearly a year of imprisonment in Lochleven Castle.
To commemorate this occasion, we present plates from John Skelton’s 1893 work Mary Stuart, Skelton’s third work on Mary, Queen of Scots, all advocating for a sympathetic view of Mary as a heroic victim. Mary Stuart was printed and published in an edition of 200 copies for Europe (with an additional 100 “with a duplicate series of plates … for America”) byBoussod, Valadon & Co. in Asnières-sur-Sein, a township in Île-de-France just north-west of Paris.
The publishing company, formerlyGoupil & Cie., is best known for its association with Galerie Goupil and the auction and exhibition of contemporary art. With branches in New York, London, Berlin, Vienna, and Brussels, Goupil was a dominant force in the 19th century art market. The business was initially established in 1827 by Jean-Baptiste Michel Adolphe Goupil as a print publishing firm. Goupil retired from the business in 1884, leaving his partner Léon Boussod and Boussod’s son-in-law René Valadon in charge of the business. In 1886, Boussod established the photographic studio and printing press at Asnières where Mary Stuart would eventually be printed.
Mary’s life was beset with scandal and tragedy. After her betrothal to Henry VIII’s son Edward fell apart, she was sent to France at the age of five to eventually wed the Dauphin, Francis II, two years her junior. They married once the Dauphin came of age, but Francis died of an infection and Mary found herself widowed at 18. Mary returned to Scotland and was eventually married to her cousin, Henry Stuart, Earl of Darnley, generally described as a rageful, alcoholic, syphilitic womanizer.
Darnley was killed under suspicious circumstances in January of 1567. Mary herself was suspected, as was James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell. Bothwell was eventually tried and acquitted in April, but the marriage of Bothwell and Mary only weeks after the trial caused quite a controversy. The Scottish nobility turned on Mary and Bothwell, leading to her imprisonment and the abdication of the throne. Mary fled to England, hoping to find an ally in her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Instead, she was held prisoner (albeit rather lavishly) for the new two decades. She was executed in 1587 after being found guilty of treason.
Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) is most well known for establishing a systematic binomial nomenclature for describing biological entities. This system was first published in his Philosophia Botanica, published in Stockholm and Amsterdam in 1751. This week we present engraved plates from a Spanish edition of this work, printed in Madrid by the widow and children of Pedro Marin in 1792 under the direction of Spanish botanist Casimiro Gómez de Ortega (1741-1818), with additional material by the Swedish botanist Johan Andreas Murray(1740-1791).
Francisco Goya aka Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828, b. Fuendetodos, Spain, d. Bordeaux, France) - Ensayos (Trials) from Los Caprichos, 1799, Etching, Aquatint, Burin on Paper
Simon Francis Ravenet, Gunhilda Accused of Adultery, 1760 Engraving
Image in the public domain. The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
More images from a biblical commentary with some not so obviously biblical additions. They can feel icky if you don’t care for bugs, but we couldn’t help laughing at (laughing with?) this bundled up, E.T.-like critter.
These images are from a recent donation of hundreds of religious themed engravings and illustrations. We have determined a subcollection of these is from the Kupfer-Bibel: in welcher die Physica sacra, oder beheiligte Naturwissenschafft derer in Heil. Augspurg & Ulm: Gedruckt bey Christian Ulrich Wagner, 1731-1735.
For Halloween week here’s a real “treat” of some creepy details from a 18th century publication that combines biblical commentary with depictions of flora and fauna of the natural world. The passage connecting these critters with the bible is Exodus VIII:16-20 which explains how though the people had been warned not to let the nourishing manna remain on the ground, “…they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul.”
These images are from a recent donation of hundreds of religious themed engravings and illustrations. We have determined a subcollection of these is from the Kupfer-Bibel: in welcher die Physica sacra, oder beheiligte Naturwissenschafft derer in Heil. Augspurg & Ulm: Gedruckt bey Christian Ulrich Wagner, 1731-1735.
I made this since I can’t draw for the new chapter currently.
I was unsure about sharing here, but I have these pendants up to order!! Please fill out this form and I will email you back with confirmation and send the voicemail over PayPal! (Since Etsy isn’t a great place to sell anymore)
I made this since I can’t draw for the new chapter currently.
I was unsure about sharing here, but I have these pendants up to order!! Please fill out this form and I will email you back with confirmation and send the voicemail over PayPal! (Since Etsy isn’t a great place to sell anymore)
The wildly popular #Breugel exhibition at the #Kunsthistorischesmuseum. Some great touches in the display of the engravings (for example) that allows visitors to get really face-to-face with the fine detail of the work, perfect height for 5'4" me, but would make them inaccessible to wheelchair users. The sheer number of people made the visit a little trying at times, despite time slots… Especially the number of guided tours; in only six rooms there must have been 7 or 8 groups of 15 people. But the selection of works on display was truly impressive, including the display of 4 of series of 6 seasonal paintings (1 is lost, 1 remains in New York), shown together for the first time in 350 years. The exhibition has been advertised as “once in a lifetime”, and that’s a fitting description, but go early. - - @kunsthistorischesmuseumvienna #Wien #Vienna #art #Breugel #arthistory #crowds #kunsthistorisches #paintings #crowds #babel #towerofbabel #austria #instaart #instawien #tour #massen #crowded #engravings #museum #museen #artgallery #InstaMuseum #museumsandstuff #onceinalifetime #people (at Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqgDdMUFwCv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=19nwtptwnooni
Yes, our special collections is closed; yes, our library is closed, like libraries everywhere during this difficult time. But Caturday doesn’t stop for a pandemic! Here’s a scene from Louisa May Alcott’s LittleWomen (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1880), a book in our special collections where three kitties are just acting like all is fine and it’s time to have some fun…
It’s Haturday in the special collections! Wait, what? Oh. Well, no cats here. But this week we ran across the House Wren in our double-elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of America and were reminded to remind you that you can visit the special collections by making an appointment, and you can view the volume where this hat resides or any of the other 12,000 books in the collection. More info? Click here.
On this day, 104 years ago, the last passenger pigeon on earth died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her name was Martha and she was almost 30 years old. John James Audubon, who depicted these beauties (one of 435 hand-colored copper engravings in our double-elephant folio Birds of America), could never have conceived they would be extinct a century later…
Today’sGoogle doodle, which celebrates the 287th birthday of Dutch scientist Jan Ingenhousz, reminds us we hold this 1785 edition of his Nouvelles expériences et observations sur divers objets de physique. Dedicated to Ingenhousz’s friend and colleague Benjamin Franklin, the volume is a staff favorite because of its brightly marbled edges and endpages, elegant gilt spine, and engraved fold-out plates. Among the images above are an engraving depicting an apparatus for breathing “dephlogisticated air” (oxygen gas) and a description of pocket-sized electrical machine for shooting a pistol through “inflammable air” (hydrogen).
Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799), Nouvelles expériences et observations sur divers objets de physique (Paris: Chez P. Théophile Barrois le jeune, 1785).
The Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, a day of reflection, fasting, and atonement, begins at sundown.
Copperplate engraving by Johann Georg Puschner illustrating observance of Yom Kippur from Paul Christian Kirchner’s Jüdisches Ceremoniel (most likely the 1724 edition published by Peter Conrad Monath in Nuremberg). I Edward Kiev Judaica Collection, K0001/004-0002#1489.
