A Beautiful mid 17th Century Mezzotint, "ARCHITECTURE", One of a set of five allegorical pieces (Architecture, Astronomy, Painting, Poetry, and Sculpture. It shows an idealized classical building site: a partially constructed colonnaded structure (with scaffolding and workers on the right), classical statues, architectural fragments and tools in the foreground, a fountain with sculpture on the left, and elegantly dressed 18th-century figures (a lady in a large gown and gentlemen, one holding plans or a drawing) discussing the work. The scene is set in a landscape with trees and distant architecture under a cloudy sky.


Printed along the lower left is;  “London Printed for H. Overton without Newgate and R. Sayer in Fleet Street”.  This is a true mezzotint glass print, printed in the mid-1700s, this technique involved pasting a fresh paper mezzanine engraving face-down onto a sheet of glass using a transparent balsam. The paper back was then carefully scraped away until only the thin layer of printer's ink remained adhered to the glass, which was then hand-painted from behind. The glass shows typical age-related wear (some paint losses, cloudiness, and the reflection visible in the photo), which is normal for surviving reverse-glass paintings of this type).  Including the black painted wood frame it measures; 12-5/8" tall x 16-3/4" x 1" The back of the reverse glass painting is backed with or original wood and retains a paper label with a handwritten, XV.12y and there are no odors.

  

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