Les Métamorphoses D'Ovide, En Latin Et En François, De la traduction de M. l'Abbé Banier, de l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres; Avec Des Explications Historiques. Tome Premier. (- Quatrième.)
A Paris,: Chez Guillyn, Quai des Augustins, au Lys d'or., M.DCC.LXVII [-MDCCLXXI]. Avec Approbation Et Privilège Du Roi.
Physical Description
4 vols.: illus.; 259 mm. (Quarto).
General Note
Vol. I: [2]p., 2 ff. engr. dedic., xc, [2], 264 p., 48 pl. (inc. add. engr. t.-pl.). - Vol. II: [iii]-viii, 355, [1]p., [32] pl. - Vol. III: [iii]-viii, 360 p., [36] pl. In this volume pl. 97-99 are bound between pl. 94 and 95. - Vol. IV: [iii]-viii, 8, 367, [1] p., [22] pl. In this volume pl. 135 is misnumbered 134, and pl. 138 is misnumbered 137 and inserted after no. 139. All four volumes appear to lack an initial leaf.
The catalogue of the National Art Library records a different number of plates in each volume.
Contents
Vol. I: [T.p., add. engr. t.pl., engr. dedic.] - Préface - [Frontis.] - La Vie D'Ovide ... Par M. G*** - Chronique Des Marbres De Paros, Nommés Communément marbres D'Arundel Ou D'Oxford, En Latin Et En François - Table Des Fables Des Trois Premiers Livres Des Métamorphoses D'Ovide - Approbation; Privilege Du Roi; [colophon] - [Text of books I-III in Latin and French, with Explications and pl.] - Vol. II: [T.p.] - Table Des Fables Des Livres IV. V. VI. & VII. Des Métamorphoses D'Ovide - [Text in Latin and French of books IV-VII, with Explications and pl.]. - Vol. III: [T.p.] - Table Des Fables Des Livres VIII. IX. X. & XI. Des Métamorphoses D'Ovide - [Text in Latin and French of books VIII-XI, with Explications and pl.]. - Vol. IV: [T.p.] - Table Des Fables Des Livres XII. XIII. XIV. & XV. Des Métamorphoses D'Ovide - Explication Des Vignettes Et Fleurons Des Métamorphoses D'Ovide - Avis Au Relieur - [Text in Latin and French of books XII-XV, with Explications and pl.] - Table Des Matieres Contenues Dans Les Quatre Volumes in-4o. Des Métamorphoses D'Ovide.
Responsibility Note
The Life of Ovid is by C. P. Goujet.
All plates are signed. The most celebrated of the illustrators was the painter Boucher (whose Molière of 1734 had established his mastery in this genre); he contributes ten designs. Other veterans were Charles Eisen (58 plates) and H. Gravelot (6). Of the younger men Charles Monnet contributed 35 plates and Jean-Michel Moreau 26; single plates were designed by Le Prince, Parizeau and St. Gois. The engravers show a similar mixture of established and younger artists: Noel Le Mire himself engraved 25 plates and Basan 3, and others were made by Le Veau (16), J. Massard (16), D. Nee, N. DeLaunay, Baquoy, L. Binet, J.B. Simonet, N. Ponce, De Ghent, Duclos and Helman.
The publication is further adorned with a full-page cul-de-lampe and 34 vignettes by Pierre-Philippe Choffard - which are accorded their own 'Explication' in Volume IV.
The team of publishers comprised Barrois, Leclerc, Guillyn, Hochereau, Pissot, Pault (jeune), De Lormel, Prault (fils aîné), Despilly and Panckoucke.
The publication is dedicated by Basan and Le Mire to the Duc de Chartres (afterwards Duc D'Orléans).
References
The context of this publication is investigated in A. Griffiths, Prints for books: book illustration in France 1760-1800 (2004); O.E. Holloway, French rococo book illustration (1969).
On Ovid in European art see: M. Thimann, Lügenhafte Bilder: Ovids Favole und das Historienbild in der italienischen Renaissance (2002); G. Papponetti, Immagini di Ovidio (1999); Die Rezeption der Metamorphosen des Ovid, ed. H. Walter (1995); Ovidius herschapen [exhibition catalogue] ('s-Gravenhage, 1980); H. Bartholomé, Ovid und die antike Kunst (1935); P.G. Schönfeld, Ovids Metamorphosen in ihrem Verhältnis zur antiken Kunst (1877). A survey of Greek mythology in art is: J.D. Reid, The Oxford guide to classical mythology in the arts, 1300-1990s, 2 v. (1993).
Summary Note
Ovid's lively and witty poem on the transformations of the Greek and Roman gods has attracted many artists. The present edition demonstrates how the team-work of illustrators helped make the third quarter of the eighteenth century one of the most productive periods of book-illustration in Europe. To accompany the text and translation the team of publishers - acting 'par les soins des Srs Le Mire et Basan' - commissioned 140 plates, a cul-de-lampe and 34 vignettes from a team of draughtsmen and engravers of overlapping generations. Evidence of the pressure under which they worked may be gathered from their frequent recourse to earlier models. Boucher copied his own paintings, Monnet copied Boucher, and Eisen copied Rubens's oil sketches. Monnet, Moreau, Gravelot and above all Eisen drew heavily on editions of the Metamorphoses issued at Amsterdam in 1732, Paris in 1676 and perhaps Lyons in 1557. The handsome result forms a compendium of an illustrative tradition.
Provenance
Purchased by 1780. Recorded in Catalogue Of The Library In The Royal Academy, London (1802).
Copy Note
Imperfect; wanting plate 118 of Volume III.
Binding Note
18th-century mottled calf, with royal arms of Britain and 'R.A.' gilt-stamped on upper cover; rebacked in 1996, with red and black morocco spine labels lettered 'Les Metamorp(h). D'Ovide Tom I(-IV)'.
Subject
Mythology, Roman - Mythology, Greek - Transformation - Iconography
Fables, Latin - Fables, Greek
Latin poetry - 1st century
Translations from Latin - Translations into French - France - 18th century
Illustrated books, French - Pictorial works - France - 18th century
Armorial bindings - Great Britain - 18th century