Oeuvres de Jean Racine
This is the second volume of Didot's three-volume The Works of Racine. In his preface to the books, Didot referred to this edition as a "monument to Racine." He carried out this metaphor in the scale and luxuriousness of the edition, as well as in commissioning contemporary artists to illustrate it. The presentation of the illustrations reinforces the impressiveness of the edition, where an equality of scale is established between image and text: both the distance from the top of each illustration to the bottom of the caption below, and the width of each illustration are equal to the size of the text blocks that open each act and face the illustrations. This visual equivalence asserts the significance of the illustrations as interpretations of the text, and as images in their own right. Didot's claims for the significance of the illustrations were underscored by the fact that the individual prints were exhibited regularly at the Salon.
Artwork Details
- Title: Oeuvres de Jean Racine
- Author: Jean Racine (French, baptized 1639–1699 Paris)
- Illustrator: Pierre Paul Prud'hon (French, Cluny 1758–1823 Paris)
- Illustrator: Jean Guillaume Moitte (French, Paris 1746–1810 Paris)
- Illustrator: Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson (French, Montargis 1767–1824 Paris)
- Illustrator: Taunai (French, active early 19th century)
- Illustrator: baron François Gérard (French, Rome 1770–1837 Paris)
- Illustrator: Antoine Denis Chaudet (French, Paris 1763–1810 Paris)
- Engraver: Jean-Baptiste-Michel Dupréel (French, active 1787–1817)
- Publisher: Pierre Didot l'ainé (French, 1761–1853)
- Published in: Paris
- Date: 1801
- Medium: Printed book with engraved illustrations
- Dimensions: Overall: 19 11/16 x 13 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. (50 x 35 x 7 cm)
- Classification: Books
- Credit Line: Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and The Elisha Whittelsey Funds; and Gift of John Sise, by exchange, 1958
- Object Number: 58.635.1(2)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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1801
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