Design Art, 17th-18th Centuries, Giardini Cartouches, Italian Antique Prints, c. 1750

Giovanni Giardini was a draughtsman, silversmith, gem-carver and bronze caster.  After an apprenticeship to the silversmith Marco Gamberucci, he became qualified as a master silversmith.  He soon became an esteemed member of the silversmiths’ guild with a successful business, in which he was joined by his brotherAlessandro in 1680.  In 1698, he was named bronze-founder for the papacy, completing important commissions for the papal court, including objects which are today in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna, as well as St. Peter’s in Rome.   His influential collection of designs for sacred and secular objects originally published as Disegni Diversi (1714) and later reissued in Rome by Fausto Amideo as Promptuarium artis argentariae (1750) is considered the finest 18th-century collection of patterns for silversmiths.

Maximilian Joseph Limpach was a Czech engraver born in Prague, active in the early 18th century.  He worked in Rome for the Vatican printshop.  His best-known works are the 100 plates he engraved after Giovanni Giardini for Disegni Diversi (1714).

Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall minor toning.  Some scattered discoloration, staining, confined to margins, some wear to outer margins, can be matted out.  Some with faint plate numbers by hand in ink.

References:

Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs.  France: Librairie Gründ, 1966.  Vol. 5, p. 585.

“Giovanni Giardini.”  The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Artnet.com.  http://www.artnet.com/library/03/0320/T032096.asp (27 August 2004).