PETITOT, Ennemond Alexandre - BOSSI, Benigno. Suite des Vases Tiree du Cabinet De Monsieur du Tillot Marquis de Felino.
Parma, Benigno Bossi, 1764 [ma post 1765]
Large 4to. 424x281 mm. Contemporary marbled boards binding. Entirely engraved work, printed on strong laid paper. 33 leaves in total: Calligraphic title page, second illustrated title page, one leaf with dedication to the Marquis of Felino, numbered 1 in the top right corner, 30 etched plates, numbered 2-31. Heraldic Ex-libris. Signs of wear to the binding, sporadic foxing, stains and browning inside, plates 29 and 30 detached, overall a good copy.
First Edition, third state. Magnificent work with the complete series of neoclassical vases based on original drawings by the French architect and designer Petitot, engraved by Benigno Bossi. The engraved dedication bears the date 1764, but the work was published between 1765-1770 and the end of the century. Cole: “[The work] stands out for both beauty and imagination among the numerous sets of ornamental prints published during the eighteenth century”.
Born in Lyon in 1727, Petitot studied architecture with Soufflot. After winning the first grand prize of the Paris Academy of Architecture in 1745, he stayed in Rome where he was in particular a companion of Piranesi, and then settled in Parma with Duke Filippo, son-in-law of Louis XV and patron of Bodoni.
The master ornamentalist Benigno Bossi, 1727-1792 was one of the most elegant and eclectic artists of his time. He studied in Nuremberg and Dresden: settled in Parma from 1757, he entered the service of du Tillot and became one of Petitot's collaborators, for whom he executed works of architectural ornamentation and engraving, a discipline in which he excelled.
Cole: “Complete sets (in any state) of Petitot's Suite des Vases are RARE.”; Berlin Kat. 1081; William Cole, "The States of Petitot and Bossi's Suite de Vases," in: Print Quarterly, X; Cfr. Guilmard, Les Maîtres ornemanistes, 27; Mary L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, n° 91, pp. 163-165.