Entertaining sons - Danza dei figli di Alcinoo, plaster bas-relief by Antonio Canova, circa 1790-92

 

In the collection of the Museo dell’Accademia Perugia, Perugia.

This work is part of a series of eight large plaster bas-reliefs inspired by Homer's poems, Virgil's Aeneid, and Plato's Phaedo. Danza dei figli di Alcinoo (Dance of the Sons of Alcinous), the most animated of the sequence, is based on an episode narrated in the eighth canto of the Odyssey. It depicts Halios and Laodamas, the sons of King Alcinous of the Phaeacians, performing a graceful dance in honor of their shipwrecked guest, Odysseus (Ulysses), who stands at right, and watches alongside Alcinous, Queen Arete, and Princess Nausicaa, while the blind musician Demodocus can be seen seated at left playing his lyre.

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There are several versions of the piece, each with variations. Examples can be found in Perugia, Venice, Milan, and Possagno, Canova's birthplace.

In the collection of the Museo Correr, Venice.

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In the collection of the Museo Gypsotheca, Possagno.

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In the collection of the Gallerie d'Italia di Piazza della Scala, Milan.

De profil, précis et élégant - engravings and drawings by Augustin de Saint-Aubin

 

Louise-Émilie, baronne d’Andlau (Louise-Émilie de Frézals de Cherizy, baronne d'Andlau, 1717-1786), 1779.

I have to question the identification of the subject as Louise-Émilie, baronne d’Andlau. That lady was sixty-two in 1779; the woman in the portrait doesn't look
 nearly sixty-two. Since the full name is not revealed in the engraving, it seems likely that there was another - and much younger - "Louise-Émilie, baronne de."

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Adrienne-Sophie, marquise de Montesson (née Charlotte-Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou, 1738–1806), morganatic wife of the duc d'Orléans, 1779.

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Though Saint-Aubin was certainly a very talented and accomplished draughtman, himself, many of his engraved portrait medallions were created using pre-existing likenesses of the subjects.

François Dumont, 1788.

The artist’s wife, Louise-Nicole Godeau Saint-Aubin, circa 1770s.

Guillaume Coustou, 1770.

Unknown, circa 1780s.

Jean Monnet, 1765.

A vintage inscription on the back reads, "A young girl about 14 years old, 'aunt Philippine.'" Circa 1770s.

P. J. Marco, 1784.

The artist’s wife, 1770.

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), before 1778.

Pierre Jeliote, 1771.

Fortunée-Marie d'Est, princesse de Conti, 1781.

Jean-Charles-Philibert Trudaine, 1774.

The artist’s wife, 1778.

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Augustin de Saint-Aubin, sometimes styled Auguste de Saint-Aubin (3 January 1736, Paris – 9 November 1807, Paris), French designer and engraver. Born the son of the king's embroiderer Gabriel Germain de Saint-Aubin, he came from a family of artists and designers, which included his six siblings: brothers Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin and Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, as well as Catherine Louise, Louis-Michel, Athanasius, and Agathe; the siblings were known collectively as the "Book of Saint-Aubin". His niece, Marie-François, daughter of Charles, was an artist as well. Trained by his brother Gabriel-Jacques, he later studied with Étienne Fessard and Laurent Cars. His first submission to the Salon was an etching in 1752. He was approved by the Académie Royale in 1771, but did not graduate, as he failed to submit one of the required reception pieces. He took many commissions for commercial purposes like bookplates, frontispieces, invitations, tradesmen's cards, and programs, and he also illustrated books. In 1776 he was appointed as the official engraver at the Bibliothèque Royale. He later worked on etching the collection of antique gems owned by the Duc d'Orléans. A nineteenth-century catalogue raisonné lists over thirteen hundred of his works, but he is most remembered for his portraits. During his lifetime, he was considered the most successful of the siblings but, ironically, he is the one about whom least is now known. He died in the place of his birth at the age of seventy-one.

Bed, Bath, and... IV - a selection of damp and sleepy vintage photographs