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Livre de la conqueste de la Toison d'Or

Print
1563 (engraved)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The artist who designed this print worked as assistant to the Italian artist, Rosso Fiorentino, at the French royal palace of Fontainbleau. The most clebrated interior at Fontainbleau was the Galerie Francois I, named after the then king, which featured fresco paintings set into elaborate plaster frames. This black and white print translates this idea into a form which was both much more affordable and portable, and thus enabled the influence of Fointainbleau to travel right across Europe.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Livre de la conqueste de la Toison d'Or (series title)
  • Jason and the Golden Fleece (generic title)
  • Phryxus arrives in Colchis where King Aeetes offers him shelter. He sacrifices the golden ram (plate 4) (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Engraving on paper
Brief description
René Boyvin after Léonard Thiry. Phryxus arrives in Colchis where King Aeetes offers him shelter. Plate 4 from Livre de la conqueste de la Toison d'Or. France, 1563.
Physical description
Phryxus arrives in Colchis where King Aeetes offers him shelter. He sacrifices the golden ram (plate 4). On the left, a man brings a bull to the burning altar. On the right, Phrixus, who has just sacrificed the golden ram. The main picture is depicted within an ornate strapwork border incorporating a rich array of grotesque ornament. Numbered and signed on plate (monogram within image, bottom left).
Dimensions
  • Cut to height: 15.5cm
  • Cut to width: 23.1cm
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
  • Leonardus Thiri. inue. Renatus. F. [1563]. (Inscribed on plate 26)
  • (Numbered and signed on plate (monogram within image, bottom left).)
Object history
Robert Dumesnil, VIII. Nos. 7, 8, 13, 15-21 2nd state. Nos. 2, 23-25 3rd state. Nos. 1, 4, 9, 10 3rd state,with added shading. Nos. 7, 8, 20 have burin scratches since 1563 edition.
Historical context
Plate from a series of twenty-six prints relating the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece, engraved by René Boyvin after Léonard Thiry. Each scene is framed by an ornate border, reproducing the model created by Rosso Fiorentino in the Gallery of Francis I at Fontainebleau. Léonard Thiry, of Flemish origin, was one of Rosso's best aides, as his salary at Fontainebleau, and Vasari's comment on him suggest. The set was published in 1563, in Paris, in both Latin and French, and was preceded by a letterpress text: privilege, dedication to the King, and four pages on the story of Jason written by Jacques Gohory (1520-1576). In most editions, we also find quatrains by the same poet, printed in a cartouche, and used as a caption for each plate. Thanks to the privilege and dedication, we know that it was Jehan de Mauregard, an officer of the Crown, who had this set made to present to the young Charles IX.

The V&A keeps scattered prints of this set along with a complete album which is an impression of the Latin edition. See E.2454-1920 to 2479-1920, E.2019-1908 to 2028-1908, 26595 A to 26595 F and E.88A-1891 to E.88B-1891. All but one of the original drawings have survived. Twenty two are kept in Leiden (Library of the University) and the other three are in Paris (Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts).

In Colchis, Phrixus was welcomed by the King Aeetes and he sacrificed the ram to Neptune. The remains of the ram, known as the golden fleece, were kept by a sleepless dragon, in a grove sacred to Mars.
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Summary
The artist who designed this print worked as assistant to the Italian artist, Rosso Fiorentino, at the French royal palace of Fontainbleau. The most clebrated interior at Fontainbleau was the Galerie Francois I, named after the then king, which featured fresco paintings set into elaborate plaster frames. This black and white print translates this idea into a form which was both much more affordable and portable, and thus enabled the influence of Fointainbleau to travel right across Europe.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Los Angeles, 1994. p. 309.
  • The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Los Angeles, 1994. p. 466.
  • Zerner, Henri. Thiry, Leonard. Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press [9/12/05].
  • Osborne, Harold /Jordan, Harold Fontainebleau in Hugh Brigstocke, ed The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Oxford University Press, 2001. Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 2005 [9/12/05].
  • Robert-Dumesnil, A.P.F. Le peintre-graveur français. Paris, 1835-71. vol VIII, nos. 39-64. This image p. 38, no. 42.
  • Boyvin, René and Leonard Thiry. Liure de la Conqueste de la Toison d'or par le Prince Iason de Tessalie; faict par figures auec exposition d'icelles. A Paris. Auec prieulege du Roy. 1563.
  • Zorach, Rebecca. Blood, milk, ink, gold : abundance and excess in the French Renaissance. Chicago & London: University of Chicago, 2005. 314 p., ill. ISBN 0226989372. pp. 158-188 and 271-275.
  • Lambert, Susan (ed.) Pattern & Design: Designs for the Decorative Arts 1480-1980 London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983
  • Linzeler, A. and Jean Adhémar., Inventaire du fonds français; graveurs du seizième siècle (Paris: M. Le Garrec; Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1932-1935, 1932): vol. 1, p. 174.
  • Levron, J., René Boyvin, graveur angevin du XVIe siècle, avec le catalogue de son oeuvre et la reproduction de 114 estampes (Anger, France: Les Lettres et la Vie Française. Éditions Jacques Petit, 1941), cat. 19.
Collection
Accession number
E.2020-1908

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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