Ancient world, Mythology, Villa Negroni, Bacchus and Ariadne
Villa Negroni
Bacchus and Ariadne. Originally hand-colored with gouache paint copper etching. Plate VII, the main and largest picture from a series of 12.
Design by: Anton von Maron (1733 Vienna - Rome 1808)
Engraver: Pietro Marco Vitali (ca. 1755 - ca. 1810)
Title (Dedication): "Equiti Josepho Nicolao de Azara Potentiss Caroli III Hisp. Reg.Catholici aput S. Sedem Pro Legato Procuralorique Generali aequo Bonarum Artium aestimatori etc"
Rome, 1783
Condition: Print has light general age toning, visible actually only in the margins and on the reverse side. Also on reverse side is some spotting visible. Left, upper and right margins are narrow. The original hand coloring in gouache style is superb.
In general: Very good condition.
Sheet measurements: 56.5 x 81.2 cm (ca. 22.2 x 31.9")
Villa Negroni was the Imperial villa of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (86 - 161 - he reigned as emperor from 138 until his death). As emperor he named himself Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius. The emperor's domicile was most luxurious. But it was, like so many other antique buildings, buried for many centuries. During excavations near the Diocletian Thermes, Jose Nicolas Azara, Legate of Carlo III, King of Spain, discovered Villa Negroni in the year 1777. The amazingly outstanding wall frescoes, were found to be in astonishingly good condition. Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) and Anton von Maron were commissioned to copy the stunningly beautiful frescoes right after discovery. And soon thereafter Angelo Campanella and Pietro Vitali produced copper etchings after Mengs' drawings. The Roman architect Camillo Buti (1747-1808) was chosen to publish in an folio size album the copper etchings made of the frescoes by Mengs and von Maron alongside his, Buti's, descriptions and ground plans of the imperial villa. The discovery of Villa Negroni was of equal importance to the discoveries at Pompeii and Ercolano.
Our Plate VII, Bacchus and Ariadne was the centerpiece on Room "D" of the Villa Negroni. It was flanked by "Hercules" Plate V in the album and "Silenus with a bacchante" Plate XII.
It was a very small number printed of this series in the year 1783. Only few of them survived That makes the surviving prints so rare. Print #VII, the only one we possess of this series is by far the most attractive one. Mengs and von Maron did an excellent job depicting the antique frescoes in their portrayal as well as in their splendid colors. This was unexpectedly important, since the frescoes, in the further course of events, were lost. Shortly after their discovery and almost immediately after Mengs and von Maron had finished their drawings, the frescoes were professionally removed from the walls of Villa Negroni and sold!!! They were shipped to England. But it is uncertain iof they ever arrived there and what happened to them.
The early loss of the original frescoes and the oblivion, which resulted from their vanishing plus the fact that the printing of the mentioned album by architect Buti (the publishing lasted from 1777 to 1802) and the fact that only few exemplars of the complete album were actually produced, all of this makes the few existing exemplars historico-culturally so immanently important. Only a very small number of the album are manifested in the possession of European museums.
