A COMPLETE SUITE OF 12 HAND-PAINTED ENGRAVINGS IN THE STYLE OF MICHANGELO MAESTRI AFTER RAPHAEL'S "HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT

[Paris: Alexandre Richomme, 1805-06]. 383 x 280 mm. (18 1/8 x 11").
Attractively matted (secured at the top, loose at the bottom) and housed in a stiff paper portfolio, with protective waxed tissue between the engravings. THE COMPLETE SUITE OF 12 HAND-PAINTED ENGRAVINGS, each depicting an allegorical figure against a black background, framed in purple, and with small animals and objects in a frieze below, the images by different printmakers (including Jean Baptiste Fosseyeux, Louis Croutelle, Eugene Bourgeois, Jacques Louis Petit, Jean François Ribault, N. Thomas, Jacques Lavallée, Louis Francois Mariage, and François Jacques Dequevauviller), ALL PAINTED WITH GOUACHE IN THE STYLE OF MICHANGELO MAESTRI. With the printed titles in Italian pasted onto the lower edge of the verso. See: Giangiacomo Gandolfi, "The Strange Case of Raphael's Planetary Hours: Revealing a Neoclassical Forgery," an unpublished presentation given at the "Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena" conference in London in 2015. ◆A handful of the purple corners with extremely subtle repairs, but the suite otherwise IN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE CONDITION, with no rubbing or other signs of use, and with the paint especially rich.

This is a very rare complete set of 12 simply ravishing hand-painted engravings featuring graceful female figures as allegories of the day and night, purportedly based on a series of lost frescoes traditionally associated with the Renaissance artist Raphael. Each image depicts an ethereal woman floating on a black background, draped in classical garb and holding items of symbolic importance, including a torch, a sundial, an hourglass, and animals such as an owl, a swan, and a weasel. Below each figure is a small frieze depicting a variety of small animals and objects, some of which include playful scenes: for example, in one case, a squirrel perches on a small golden chariot, holding reigns attached to a dove. For many years these images, popularly known as Raphael's "Hours of the Day and Night," were believed to be based on lost frescos by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520); however, scholar Giangiacomo Gandolfi convincingly argues that the series is, in fact, an "astute pastiche of various figures painted by the School of the old Master," driven by the fashion for all things Neoclassical at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Gandolfi describes three different series of prints depicting the "Hours" during this period, the earliest of which was published in 1801 by the artist Michangelo Maestri, active in Rome between 1779-1812. Little is known about Maestri's life and career, but he seems to have made a name for himself producing Raphael-esque gouache paintings over etchings, almost all of which feature black backgrounds with classical figures, as seen here. The large engraved titles, originally printed between image and the imprint, are pasted to the versos of the paintings here, although the publication information ("Imprimé par Alexandre Richomme"), which appeared in tiny letters at the very bottom of these sheets, has been trimmed away in our suite (this imprint can be seen at the British Museum website). In any case, we know that, based on a description of an identical, uncolored set at the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 854107), our series was engraved by a coterie of French printmakers including Jean Baptiste Fosseyeux. In both style and subject matter, our gouache paintings are very similar to the work produced by Michangelo Maestri. Whether by Maestri or not, the coloring here is superb, and was clearly the work of a talented artist familiar with Maestri's work. Our artist utilizes very subtly painted flesh tones and rich textiles that are held in beautiful suspension against the very opaque black background, allowing the original etching just to peek through the paint in places, giving the viewer the opportunity to appreciate the delicacy and precision of both the painter's brush and the engraver's burin. This series seems to be extremely rare in commerce, even more so if complete and colored: besides our own suite, we could trace just three appearances of individual engravings in RBH (as well as a single image from a dealer at the time of this writing); a complete--but uncolored--set was sold at Christie's in 2014 for £1,000..