Two Children (or Putti)
Etcher Francesco Bartolozzi Italian
After Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian
Publisher John & Josiah Boydell British
Not on view
Two putti here hold a piece of fabric and stand back to back. Bartolozzi's print reproduces a Guercino drawing owned by George III that relates to "The Toilet of Venus" (1623, private collection), a painting in which eleven putti attend the goddess as she dresses. The print is contained in a volume that promotes the Royal Collection, first published in 1764 by Richard Dalton--as the king's librarian, Dalton collected art for the crown in Italy, persuaded Bartolozzi to move to England, then commissioned him to produce a large number of prints after Guercino. London publishers John and Josiah Boydell, here reissued these in the mid-to-late 1790s, shortly after acquiring Dalton's printing plates.
