Art History. RIDOLFI. Le maraviglie dell'arte, ovvero le Vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello Stato.

RIDOLFI, Carlo. Le maraviglie dell'arte, ovvero le Vite de gl'illustri pittori veneti, e dello Stato. Ove sono raccolte le Opere Insigni, i costumi, e i ritratti loro.

Venezia, Giovan Battista Sgava, 1648

A rare, illustrated first edition. An important source for art studies. Arntzen and Rainwater: ‘A primary source of information on painters from Venice and the Veneto region. Particularly valuable for its material on the author’s 17th-century contemporaries’. A copy with good impressions of the plates depicting the portraits, accompanied by descriptions, of Venetian artists from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, including Andrea Mantegna, Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Paris Bordone, Palma the Younger, Palma the Elder, Lotto, Moretto, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and the latter’s daughter and son. It includes tables listing the names of the Greek and Roman painters mentioned, biographies of the various painters described, their works and their locations. Ridolfi’s ‘Lives of the Artists’ represent a sort of Venetian counterpoint to Vasari’s Florentine perspective on the evolution of art. The work provides numerous details on paintings and artistic practices; Ridolfi, like Vasari, was also an artist, but today he is better known for his writings than for his artistic output. Unlike Vasari’s second illustrated edition of 1568, Ridolfi does not include portraits of all the artists described. Most of the portraits were engraved by Giovanni Georgi, an engraver active in Venice and Padua.

Gamba 2063; Graesse VI.120; Haym II.553.3; Schlosser 495; Cicognara 2359. Cfr. Thieme/B. XXVI, 581.

Two parts in a volume in 4to. 218x155 mm. 17th century binding in full leather, gilt rules frames on covers, gilt rules and title on spine; polychrome marbled end papers, gilt edges. Pp. [64, including Frontispiece, printed title page, author’s portrait], 406, 2 blank; [60, including engraved frontispiece], 324. Woodcut initials, head pieces and end pieces. All the engravings are engraved on copper. Ex Libris pasted on the inside cover. Slight sign of wear o n binding, internally nice copy.