Portrait of Count Giacomo Durazzo

c. 1784

Giovanni David, Giovanni Vitalba, and Bartolommeo Benincasa (author)

Associated Names
Giovanni David

Artist, Italian, 1743 - 1790

Giovanni Vitalba

Artist, Italian, 1738 - c. 1792

The image is an engraved portrait showing the head and upper torso of a man in profile, in an oval frame adorned with decorative elements like ribbons and foliage. The man is positioned to the right side, displaying a side profile. His facial features exhibit a high forehead, prominent nose, and closed lips. His hair is neatly styled, likely a wig of the period, tied at the back with a ribbon. He is wearing formal attire, consisting of a jacket and a ruffled cravat. In the area surrounding the portrait, there are artistic elements such as papers, an inkwell with a pen, and a painter's palette and brushes. The background comprises a rectangular frame with detailed decorative carvings.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching, aquatint, and engraving on laid paper tipped into book as frontispiece

  • Credit Line

    William B. O'Neal Fund

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed within platemark at right where sheet is tipped into book): 29.4 × 21.2 cm (11 9/16 × 8 3/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2017.193.1.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Newcome Schleier-Grasso 2003, no. 161

Associated Artworks

This is a photograph of a historical document's cover page. The document describes a collection of prints belonging to Jacopo Durazzo, a Genoese patrician, with a dissertation on the art of engraving. The cover is text-focused with Italian typography. It includes an engraved emblem or crest below the main text, and the bottom of the page indicates it was published in Parma by the Royal Printing House in 1784. The paper shows signs of aging with spots and discoloration.

Descrizione della raccolta di stampe di S.E. il sig. conte Jacopo Durazzo, patrizio genovese, ec. ec., esposta in una dissertazione sull'arte dell'intagio a stampa

Bartolommeo Benincasa, Giambattista Bodoni, dalla Reale Stamperia

1784

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

La vecchia Parma antiquariato, No. 1534 (bookplate). Miari Pelli Fabbroni (bookplate). (Enrico Cortona, Milan); purchased 2017 by NGA.

Associated Names

Bibliography

2003

  • Grasso, Giovanni, and Mary Newcome Schleier. Giovanni David, Pittore e incisore della famiglia Durazzo. Turin, 2003: no. 161.

2021

  • Hoisington, Rena. Aquatint: From Its Origins to Goya. Washington, 2021: 125, fig. 12.

Inscriptions

in plate, in image, below portrait: J. COMTE DE DURAZZO / Noble Genois / Ambassadeur Imperial a Venise.; in frontispiece, in plate, at bottom left: David Gen. in. et ornavit; in frontispiece, in plate, below image, at bottom right: Vitalba vultum perfecit

Markings

none

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