CONTINENTAL BOOKS CATALOGUE 1448 - Maggs Bros. Ltd.

9 BLOEMAERT (ABRAhAM) Oorspronkelyk en vermaard konstryk
tekenboek. Amsterdam, Reinier & Josua Ottens, 1740.
Engraved title, added, engraved dedication plate,
portrait of the author and plates numbered 1
(engraved title) to 166; engraved title, portrait
and duplicates of plates 80, 94, 95, 108, 137,
144 & 145 overprinted with chiaroscuro blocks
in ochre; also duplicates of 87, 88, 98 & 102
making a total of 179 plates, by Frederick
Bloemaert after Abraham Bloemaert.
Folio (404 x 287mm) [3]ff 6pp [2]ff. Contemporary
half-calf, marbled boards (neat repairs to spine). £6,500
the most complete edition oF the dutch
mAnnerist Artist AbrAhAm bloemAert’s
(1564-1651) drAwing book which includes the
engraved title, portrait and seven duplicate
plates overprinted in chiaroscuro. First
published in installments c1650-1656 under the
title Artis Apellae liber with 100-120 plates, few
copies of which have survived, the present
edition is described by Bolten as ‘magnificent...
due to its costly and attractive design, [it]
presumably made its way directly to the library
of the connoisseur’.
Abraham’s youngest son, Frederick
Bloemaert (c1610-c1669), had engraved the
plates after the designs of his father for their
original publication and they were prepared and
ordered for this edition by the renowned French
engraver and publisher Bernard Picart. The
plates are divided into eight sections each part
with its own title: I Heads & faces. II Hands &
feet. III Figures. IV Male & female nudes. V
Children. VI Figures & groups. VII
Compositions or historic subjects. VIII Animals.
‘The leading example of the master model
in the Netherlands is the drawing book by
Abraham Bloemaert. This work consists mostly
of academic drawing examples with depictions
of both parts of the body and of the human
figure as a whole. Bloemaert’s drawing examples
are not derived from those of other authors.
They represent the fruits of a life of industrious
study in academies and after nature. Each
individual example bears the unmistakable
stamp of Bloemaert. It is not a method or a
system of construction which is being offered as
an example, but the maniera of the great and
respected master himself… This method of
approach is described by the subtitle on the title/
frontispiece, where the idea is expressed, that
the apprentice would be able to attain his goal,
the representation of the human figure, provided
that he first learned to draw the individual parts
of the human body from this book’ (Bolten).
Ref: Jaap Bolten. Method and Practice: Dutch
and Flemish Drawing Books, 1600-1750
(1985), pp57-67 (ill) & p253.
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