Beschreibung:

TENIERS, David, II (1610-1692). El Teatro de pinturas de David Teniers ... en qual se representan bosquejados por su mano, y esculpidos por su cuento, los originales Italianos que recogiò el Serenissimo Archiduque [Leopoldo] en su Sala de Pinturas en la Corte de Brusselas . Brussels and Antwerp: the author, 1660.
TENIERS, David, II (1610-1692). El Teatro de pinturas de David Teniers ... en qual se representan bosquejados por su mano, y esculpidos por su cuento, los originales Italianos que recogiò el Serenissimo Archiduque [Leopoldo] en su Sala de Pinturas en la Corte de Brusselas . Brussels and Antwerp: the author, 1660. 2° (548 x 392mm). Additional title with engraved border lettered in manuscript ' CABINET de L'ARCHDUC LEOPOLD. en l'Année. MDCLVIII.' and letterpress title with engraved arms of dedicatee by Coenrad Waumans excised and laid down onto leaf with engraved border. Engraved dedication by J. Troyen after Teniers, engraved portrait frontispiece of Teniers by Lucas Vosterman after Peter Thys, and 243 engraved plates, 7 double-page, the first depicting Archduke Leopold's picture gallery, the remainder after paintings in the collection, all mounted or inlaid to size. 2 text leaves in French inlaid to size. (Some light spotting and browning, a few engravings with unobtrusive small tears or surface abrasions.) Contemporary French black morocco gilt 'à la Du Seuil', upper and lower boards with central arms of Louis XIV [Olivier 2494, fer 10, largest format], boards panelled with triple fillets with fleur-de-lys cornerpieces, borders of fleur-de-lys rolls, gilt board-edges and turn-ins, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, gilt edges (extremities somewhat rubbed, light scuffing on boards, lettering-piece warped with small loss, possibly by fire, front free endpaper trimmed at upper edge). THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED PRINTED CATALOGUE OF A MAJOR COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS, INLAID TO A LARGE FOLIO FORMAT IN A CONTEMPORARY ARMORIAL BINDING. In 1650 Teniers was appointed Court Painter to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, the cousin of Philip IV of Spain and Governor of the Southern Netherlands, who formed a remarkable collection of some 1,300 paintings. Many of these were acquired from the celebrated collection of James, first Duke of Hamilton, following his execution for treason in 1649; so assiduous was Hamilton in the formation of his collection, that, 'An inventory of under a half of his collection in 1649 listed, inter alia , thirty-six paintings by Titian, twenty-four by Palma Giovane, eighteen by Palma Vecchio, twelve by Veronese, nine by Tintoretto, and others by Raphael, Correggio, Giorgione, and Leonardo' ( ODNB ). Teniers' duties extended to acting as the curator of Leopold Wilhelm's collection, and in this capacity he planned El Teatro de pinturas , painting copies of each of the 242 paintings chosen to be included in the work, which were used by the team of engravers responsible for the plates. The majority of the paintings engraved were acquired from the Hamilton collection, and they include oils by Raphael, Giorgione, Veronese, Carracci, Titian, Michelangelo, Corregio, and Mantegna, and each has the dimensions given beneath the image. This copy was bound in an inlaid format with two leaves with engraved borders bound in at the beginning; on the first of these the title has been added in manuscript (dated 1658, the year that the first engravings were issued) and on the second the title has been laid down.