Salvatore Tresca

Italian, probably 1750 - 1815

Explore Selected Works

Salvatore Tresca, The Preparations for the Ballet, 1782, stipple and etching, Widener Collection, 1942.9.2391

The Preparations for the Ballet

Salvatore Tresca · 1782 · stipple and etching ·  Accession ID  1942.9.2391

A man and woman look at each other near a door as a second woman sits at a dressing table in this vertical, colored print. All three people have pale skin. The man’s body faces the partially open door, which is to our left, but he turns to look and smile at the woman embracing him from behind. He has chin-length gray hair and wears a black, brimmed hat, a high-collared, white shirt with a frilly cravat, a baby-blue vest, a tan, shin-length jacket, peach-colored, knee-length breeches, white stockings, and black shoes. He holds four papers with writing and signatures down by his right side, to our left. The woman behind him reaches one hand gently for the papers as she wraps the other around his other arm. She has long, brown hair and wears a high, wide-brimmed straw bonnet piled with carnation-pink bows. Her dress has a teal-blue bodice over a white, elbow-length shirt, which is pulled partially down her chest to reveal one pale pink nipple. A powder-blue shoe pokes out from her long, voluminous silvery-blue skirt. To the right and farther into the room, the woman at the table holds both hands to a cap on her long brown hair as she looks at us and smiles faintly. Her loose white gown is cinched at the waist and falls to her ankles. The bodice has a low neckline, and the sleeves are rolled up to her elbows. She wears white stockings and backless pink slippers with pointed toes. On the table are a round box with a white poof with a handle, scissors, a brown ribbon, and a rectangular brown object, presumably a mirror. A blue garment hangs over the arm of the chair we can see. Light falls on the couple near the door and the rest of the room is in shadow. Celestial-blue curtains fall in front of a bed behind the seated woman. Text in the margin below the image reads, “ON LA TIRE AUJOURD'HUI.” Much smaller, cursive printed text under the left corner reads “L. Boilly pinx,” and under the right corner, “Salv. Tresca Sculpt.”
Salvatore Tresca, It was pulled today (On la tire aujourd'hui), color stipple and etching, Widener Collection, 1942.9.2232

It was pulled today (On la tire aujourd'hui)

Salvatore Tresca · · color stipple and etching ·  Accession ID  1942.9.2232

Salvatore Tresca, Sweet resistance (La douce resistance), color stipple and etching, Widener Collection, 1942.9.2231

Sweet resistance (La douce resistance)

Salvatore Tresca · · color stipple and etching ·  Accession ID  1942.9.2231