The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings [Hardcover]

Michael Jaffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1994 | ISBN-10: 0714829374 | ISBN-13: 978-0714829371

The collection of Old Master drawings at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, home of the Dukes of Devonshire, ranks as one of the great princely collections of Europe. Formed in the 18th-century by the first, second and third Dukes, the collection contains sheets by the great masters of every artistic school. Alongside the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, it constitutes the finest privately owned group of such drawings in Britain. This four volume set represents the catalogue raisonne of the collection - which has never previously been catalogued - which contains 1000 drawings of the Italian School from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. It includes full scholarly apparatus, a study of the formation of the collection and numerous reattributions and discoveries. The catalogue includes works by artists such as Leonardo, Raphael, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Titian and Mantegna.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Renaissance and Baroque drawings accumulated by the dukes of Devonshire over the course of the 18th century constitute what continues to be one of the most important private collections in the world. Domiciled at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, this superb assemblage includes stellar examples by many of the great personalities of the Italian graphic tradition. Aside from a brief recitation of the history of the dukes' collecting and a not particularly helpful overview of these holdings according to regional schools, Jaffe's four volumes attain an enduring value through their splendid visual documentation and cataloging of the approximately 1000 drawings in and from the collection. (More than several superb examples have in recent years been sold but for valid historical and documentary purposes are included in the catalogs.) The entries include required technical data concerning the materials employed, dimensions, iconographic identifications, provenances, exhibition histories, and selective bibliographies. The heart of the entries are, of course, the attributional assessments and assignments made for the works. Specialists have and will find reason to challenge some of the author's attributions, while amateurs will at times feel that laconic assertion replaces carefully articulated stylistic assessment and characterization in the assignment of particular drawings to specific artists. The use of more numerous supplementary visual documentation would in all likelihood enhance an appreciation of some of Jaffe's attributions. From a wider point of view, however, there can be no doubt that these volumes are a resource of inestimable value to collections concerned with the history and art of drawing in the great period of European art.
Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Tech., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1088 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714829374
• ISBN-13: 978-0714829371
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 10.6 x 5.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 17.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,215,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)