Art, Press & Illustrated Books

Jun 13, 2017 - Sale 2451

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With highlights from the Natalie Williams Collection of fine press books by Bernhardt Wall; also featuring French livres d’artistes by twentieth century masters.

Sale 2451 - Lot 13

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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(ARCHITECTURE.) Fréart, Roland, Sieur de Chambray. Parallèle de l'Architecture Antique et de la Moderne. Engraved title with portrait of Sublet des Noyers and 40 copperplate engravings by Charles Errard, depicting columns and lintels, façades, and decorative details, numerous head- and tailpieces. Folio, contemporary calf gilt, general wear; plates with strong impressions, repaired clean tears to margins of B[i] and final leaf, scattered light marginal foxing. Paris: Edmé Martin, 1650

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first edition of freart's famous comparative study which "launched the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns in architectural theory. His commentary identified sizable differences among the ''modern'' orders, despite the fact that all the Renaissance authors professed to follow the inviolable proportions of antiquity. Leaving his faith in the divine nature of proportion unquestioned, he attacked modern inventions and called for a return to the untainted forms of Greek classicism"--Avery 78. He dedicated the work to his recently deceased friend, Noyers, a major cultural figure and the Minister of Beaux-Arts in France. Fréart was also instrumental in bringing the great French painter Poussin back to Paris and appointing him painter to the King; in fact the preface of this work mentions Poussin's painting. The engraver of these plates, Errard, worked with Noyers and also studied under Poussin whose influence can be seen in several of the plates. Berlin 2374; Fowler 127.