Portrait of the Duke of Northumberland, Vase and Ornamental Frame, no. CCCLXXI, plate 56 from "Designs for Various Ornaments"

Various artists/makers

Not on view

This ornament design, numbered CCCLXXI, centers on a male portrait within an oval, surrounded by decorative elements, beneath a crown, and over a vase that supports two small smoking incense burners; the whole contained within a frame of fruits and birds. This is one of two prints in the group numbered 56 [the other consists of dedicatory text to the memory of Hugh Percy Duke of Northumberland, patron of the arts]. The portrait is engraved by Ignatius Joseph Van den Berghe, after Pierre Violet. The print comes from a group that Pergolesi made and published serially in London between 1777 and 1792. There is no title page, but a prospectus of ca. 1786 described the group as: "A great variety of original designs of vases, figures, medallions, friezes, pilasters, panels and other ornaments, in the Etruscan and grotesque style." The complete set contains 67 plates numbered 1-66 (two are numbered 56), with designs within the plates irregularly numbered 1-435 (in Roman numerals at first, then with Arabic numbers). In 1801, after Pergolesi's death, four additional plates of designs were published by a bookseller Dulouchamp (or Dulonchamp).

Portrait of the Duke of Northumberland, Vase and Ornamental Frame, no. CCCLXXI, plate 56 from "Designs for Various Ornaments", Michelangelo Pergolesi (Italian, active from 1760–died 1801), Etching

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