Dimensions: 12 7/8 × 9 in. (32.7 × 22.86 cm) (plate)16 15/16 × 10 7/8 in. (43.02 × 27.62 cm) (sheet)
Copyright: Public Domain
This print, Fascicule III, was made by Jean Claude Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non, sometime before 1791. It’s an etching, meaning that the image was incised into a metal plate, inked, and then printed onto paper. You can see the effect of this process in the crisp lines and the subtle variations in tone. The image shows multiple classical sculptures. Consider the skill and labor that went into creating this etching, with the artist carefully rendering each line and shadow to capture the form and texture of the sculptures. In Saint-Non’s time, prints like these were a key way of circulating knowledge. Think of this not just as a work of art, but as a tool for study, part of a much larger project of documenting classical art and architecture. The print embodies the knowledge economy of the 18th century, where images were commodities, and printmakers worked to supply the demand. Recognizing the processes and purpose behind the work reveals how art is enmeshed with social context.
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The Jean-Baptiste Claude Richard (also known by his title abbé Saint-Non) embodied the important role of the amateur, an patron and connoisseur of the arts as well as a practitioner in 18th-century France. He was a skilled networker, a curious, innovative printmaker, and he supported his artist friends in their projects and travels. Saint-Non executed this suite of prints in Paris in 1763, representing antique fragments and reliefs he saw during his travels in Italy from 1759 to 1761. Most of the monuments are identified in the inscriptions by their locations in Rome. The works reflect French artists’ fascination with antiquity at the time, and the way in which these sources were transmitted to a larger public through the circulation of prints. Remarkably the suite of etchings remain as originally issued, in three groups of six deckle-edged sheets stitched together simply along the top edge.
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