Flora and Four Putti
Etcher Francesco Bartolozzi Italian
After Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) Italian
Publisher John & Josiah Boydell British
Not on view
Flora, or Primavera (Spring), appears here crowned with flowers and accompanied by putti. Batolozzi's etching reproduces a Guercino drawing owned by George III, a study for a lost painting of 1624. The print is contained in a volume that promotes the Royal Collection, first published in 1764 by Richard Dalton--as the king's librarian, who 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.
