Eighty-two prints engraved by F. Bartolozzi, etc., from the original drawings of Guercino in the collection of His Majesty, vol. I / Seventy-three prints engraved by F. Bartolozzi &c. from the Original Pictures and Drawings of Michaelangelo, Domenichino, Annibal, Lodovico, and Agostino Carraci, Guercino, P. da Cortona, Carlo Maratti, Elisabetta Sirani, Pellegrino Tibaldi, Franceschino &c. in the collection of His Majesty, &c., vol. II
Not on view
Two volumes of prints are united here in a single gold-tooled leather binding. The contents reproduce drawings by Guercino, together with examples by other Italian and French masters, mostly in the British Royal Collection. The first volume opens with an engraved Guercino self-portrait, followed by a title page, index, and 81 etchings. The second volume contains 73 prints after a range of artists, introduced by a title page and index.
John and Josiah Boydell, whose London firm specialized in reproductive prints, published the contents in the mid-to-late 1790s. Between 1791 and 1792 they had purchased a hundred and fifteen printing plates from Richard Dalton, and his estate. As librarian to George III, Dalton had traveled to Italy to collect art for the king and there persuaded Francesco Bartolozzi to move to London in 1763. He then commissioned that master etcher-engraver to reproduce some of the many Guercino drawings in the Royal Collection. A set of 82 prints appeared in 1764--some by Dalton himself, and others by John Basire. Boydell's first volume here reissues the latter group, adding a new title page and index.
Boydell's second volume unites impressions from several earlier productions. The first 37 prints were made using additional Dalton plates, etched between 1765 and the 1770s after drawings owned by the king and others, executed by Bartolozzi and other London printmakers. The Boydells extended this first group by reusing some of their own stock, plates Boydell had published in 1764--etchings by Zocchi after Guercino, Cortona and other Italian draftsman, and by Du Bosc after Claude and Watteau. Since the latter group had been conceived to compete with Dalton, they made a nice complement. The volume concludes with etchings attributed to Vangelisti and based on Guercino drawings owned by P. J. Mariette. When the Boydells acquired the related plates is not known, but the images must have been etched before Mariette's death in 1774.
