ROME - CATACOMBES - PETIT Savinien (1815 † 1878).... Lot 101

ROME - CATACOMBES - PETIT Savinien (1815 † 1878). Reunion of 8 original preparatory drawings and 2 trial plates on vellum, for the large lithographed album by Louis PERRET, "Catacombs of Rome" (Paris, Gide and J. Baudry Éditeurs, 1851, 6 volumes). The set includes: 3 lithographs (trial proofs), 2 watercolours, and 5 pencil and stump drawings (including the frontispiece of volume II). Noteworthy subject: "Chapel with two rooms with lights. Transversal section", watercolour and wash on pencil line (vol. I, pl. 42). Average size of leaves: 58 x 45 cm. Condition B/C (freckles, dirt, small accidents). Set 10 pl. "Having failed to compete for the Prix de Rome, Savinien Petit owes the opportunity to discover the Eternal City to a commission from the State. In 1845, a commission composed of Ampère, Ingres, Mérimée and Vitet asked him to survey the catacombs in order to illustrate, in chromolithography, Louis Perret's work "Catacombs of Rome", published in six volumes in 1851. Petit and Perret were thus in line with the first works begun by Antonio Bosio in the 16th century, continued in the 19th century by Séroux d'Agincourt, or Padre Marchi (...), and preceded by a few years the publication of G.B. de Rossi (1822-1894), "Roma sotterranea cristiana" (1864-1877). "(Collective, "Savinien Petit: Le sentiment de la ligne, 1818-1878", exhibition catalogue, Nancy, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, 16 June - 20 Sept. 2004, Paris, Artlys Editions, 2004, p.30).