Bernard Picart, La Mort d'Hercule, Etching, 1742

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La mort d'Hercule is an original black and white etching on wire rod paper, representing the death of Hercules, realized … Read more La mort d'Hercule is an original black and white etching on wire rod paper, representing the death of Hercules, realized by the old master Bernard Picart in the 18th century. Beautiful plate with very fresh impression, from the print collection Le Temple des Muses, published in Amsterdam in 1742 by Zacharias Chatelain. Caption and author inscription below the image saying: "B. Picart del." under engraved the frame on the lower left margin. In very good conditions, except for a usual light yellowing of the margins, some light vertical folds on the right margin close to the binding, some foxing on the margins, and a little rip on the higher right margin. The engraved image has preserved its outstanding beauty and is overall in perfect conditions. Le Temple des Muses is an illustrated book of Ovid's most popular fables and other Greek myths, published in 1733 in Dutch (Tempel der Zanggodinnen), in 1738 in English, and in 1742 in French by Zacharias Chatelain. The engravings had captions in four languages: French, English, German, and Dutch. The wonderful sixty plates engraved by Bernard Picart were a sort of fashionable mythological compendium, very useful in the eighteenth century, when the fascination with Greek and Roman antiquity coincided with the systematic excavation of the ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy; after 1750, a neoclassical style dominated all artistic fields. Bernard Picart (Paris, 1673 – Amsterdam, 1733) French engraver best known for his book-illustrations, including the Bible and Ovid. His most famous work is Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, published from 1723 to 1743 and was defined: "an immense effort to record the religious rituals and beliefs of the world in all their diversity as objectively and authentically as possible" by Jonathan I. Israel. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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