Bernard Picart (1673-1733)
[Antique print, etching and engraving, 1733] Pigmalion, amoreux d’une statue …. (Pygmalion is in love with a statue…), published 1733.
From the ‘Tafereel of beschryving van den prachtigen tempel der zang-godinnen…’, also known as ‘Le Temple des Muses’ published in Amsterdam in 1733, containing histories drawn from Greek mythology, written by A.de la Barre de Beaumarchais with plates by Bernard Picart. The plates are all finely engraved and are composed with a central part dedicated to the illustration of the story and a larger one, framing the previous, inhabited with details inspired to the central plate. For the whole book see Booknr. 50936 [XX, p. 47-48]
According to Ovid, Pygmalion was a sculptor who once made a statue of a woman, so beautiful that he fell in love with it. He thus went to ask to Venus to turn the statue into a real woman, so that so he could marry her. Picart represents the statue in the central foreground, on a pedestal, naked, who is about to be turned into a woman and climbing down the pedestal. In the background Pygmalion is kneeling in front of the statue of Venus, in a temple, within a garden. Lettered in four languages on the bottom: ‘PYGMALION, AMOREUX D’UNE STATUE QU’IL A FAITE, OBTIENT DE / VENUS QU’ELLE SOIT CHANGÉE EN FEMME & L’ESPOUSE/ Pygmalion is inamored with a statue he had made; and Venus at / his prayer transforms it into a Woman./ Das Bild von Pygmalion durch Venus in eine Frau verändert / Pygmalions Beeldt door Venus in eene Vrouwe verandert’. On the bottom of the engraved frame on the left: ‘B. Picart del. 1731.’
SKU: 59677
Engraving on fine laid paper; lily watermark in the center; internal platemark: 249 x 175 mm; external plate: 351 x 254 mm; total: 486 x 308 mm. Small damages on the lower border, yet the engraved part is flawless. PLIT013
€ 242,00 (€ 200,00 ex. btw)