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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7 cms) inscr. on plate below image "The silly Poets, they say No / The cunning Painter says 'twas so / The Poet fivears, the Painter Llyes, / The Painter crys, beleive yor. eyes. / Well! I beleive the Painter Still: / For who can think say what you will, / That when Adonis lay so neare, / A Goddess thighs, he could forbeare / So having found more pleasing game, / Let Cupid hunt, he'l ply the Dame."; inscr. on plate b.l. "Poffin Pinxit"; inscr. on plate b.c. "I. Smith fe."; inscr. on plate b.r. "Sold by I. Smith at the Lyon and Crown in Russel Street Covent Garden"; inscr. on page t.r. hand-written in brown ink "63" CRE SMITH, John; (English; 1652-1743) PUB SMITH, John; (English; 1652-1743) AFTER POUSSIN, Nicolas; (French; 1594-1665) Part of William Hunter's original bequest, this is one of three volumes which together contain 488 mezzotints, almost all made or published by John Smith. About two thirds are portraits of eminent late Stuart, early Hanoverian persons. The remaining third are subject prints after a wide range of artists and subjects, from mythological and religious scenes after old Italian and Dutch and Flemish masters such as Titian and Rubens to fancy subjects after contemporary French and English painters.
Instrumental in raising the standard of mezzotint portraits, Smith was the first British printmaker to gain a European reputation, and examples of his work were essential for any serious first half of the 18th century European print collection. Hunter's set of volumes is a rare surviving example of a comprehensive collection of mezzotints compiled in the 1730s.
In this print Adonis gazes at the Roman goddess Venus whilst Cupid plays in the background. This is the only print in the volume known to be after a painting by the French artist Poussin whose, ordered, classical compositions were widely admired. | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | LANDSCAPE : GREEK MYTHOLOGY : OVID : METAMORPHOSES : VENUS : ADONIS : LOVERS : NAKED : NUDE : CUPID : LOVE : EROS : AMOR : DOVE : HUNTER VOLUME : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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