Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2024.

Images(14)

Les Ruines des plus Beaux Monuments de la Grèce: Ouvrage Divisé en Deux Parties… (Paris and Amsterdam)

Artist Julien-David Leroy (French, 1724 - 1803)

CultureFrench

Date1758

MediumBound volume, two parts in one volume.

Dimensions22 3/4 × 17 1/4 in. (57.8 × 43.8 cm)

InscribedThe recto of the front flyleaf has an annotation in pen: “C. 1 AA 10” (probably a shelf location.

PortfolioFirst edition

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2023.31

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 208

DescriptionThis is a folio-sized, leather-bound book with sixty engraved images. The spine is embossed in gold leaf with “Ruines de la Grece.” The text is in French and discusses Le Roy’s travel to Greece, the history of architecture, and the development of the Doric order. The sixty plates consist of three types (four maps, twenty-four views, and thirty-two measured drawings). The images are based on Le Roy’s drawings that were reworked by the painter Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain (1715–1760) and engraved by Jacques-Philippe Le Bas (1707–1783). Claude-Antoine Littret de Montigny (1735–1775) engraved the maps. The architects Jean-François de Neufforge (1714–1791) and Pierre Patte (1723–1814) were primarily involved with measured drawings in part two.
Label TextJulien-David Leroy French, 1724–1803 Les Ruines Des Plus Beaux Monuments De La Grèce (The Ruins of the Most Beautiful Monuments of Greece), 1758 Bound volume (two parts). First edition. Leroy’s influential book was at the center of the reappraisal of ancient Greek architecture in the eighteenth century. For the first time a robust collection of images of Greek buildings were available to a broad audience of architects, scholars, and builders. Leroy emphasized the importance of Greek designs, such as those for the Temple Theseus (now Hephaestus) seen here, as the essential precursor to ancient Roman architecture. His opinion was vigorously debated by Giovanni Piranesi, whose book is also on view in this case. Museum purchase 2023.31 ProvenanceGalerie Bassenge | Freeman’s Auction in Philadelphia (October 17, 2013, Sale 102C, Lot 1248) | CMA (public auction September 27, 2023, Lot 134)Exhibition HistoryThere is no record of exhibition for this exemplar.