Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) Carnival of... - Lot 76 - Ader

Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) Carnival of the Sultan in Mecca : Turkish Masquerade given in Rome by the Pensioners of the Academy of France and their friends - at the Carnival of the year 1748. Etching. Each 131 x 200 or 205 x 133. Baudicour 9 to 38. Meeting of 30 pl. out of 32, in sheets - missing the title (Baudicour 8) and pl. 30 in width, chariot drawn by four horses abreast (Baudicour 39). Very nice and fresh proofs on laid paper. Insignificant rust spots, small light spots or occasional soft creases. Margins of 2-3 mm. Ref : V. Carlson, Regency to Empire, French Printmaking 1715-1814, The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1984, p. 106-108. Joseph-Marie Vien won the Prix de Rome in 1743 and left for the Eternal City to continue his training . In 1748, he participated in the "Mascarade Turque" organized by the students of the Academy on the occasion of the carnival. He undertook to preserve the memory of each exotic costume in what was the largest engraving project undertaken by a resident of the Academy in the 18th century. There is a letter in which the young Vien thanks Jean-François de Troy, director of the school, to whom he dedicates this suite of engravings, as a tribute to the benevolent financial support he gave to this parade, the idea of which seems to have come from Vien himself. The triumphal procession took place along the Corso and was acclaimed by the Romans. The procession was even reviewed by Pope Benedict XIV. Vien was appointed director of the Académie de France in Rome from 1775 to 1781 " It is also the simplicity of execution that seduced the young boarders of the Académie de France in Rome . Encouraged by three successive directors of the Academy, Nicolas Vleughels (director from 1725 to 1737), Jean-François de Troy (from 1738 to 1751) and Charles Natoire (from 1752 to 1775), influenced by the existence in Italy of a magnificent production of etchings (how can we not evoke the Venetian achievements and the beginnings, in Rome, of Piranesi?), they used etching to appropriate the Italian works they had before their eyes, but also to keep the memory of the joyful celebrations in which they took part, as in the charming series of disguises of the Caravan of the Sultan of Mecca, due, in 1748, to the point of Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809). (Corinne Le Bitouzé, "L'Eau-forte des Lumières," Nouvelles de l'Estampe, no. 247, 2014, pp. 67-71).