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Engraving of Two Medals Depicting: The Union of the Cities of Smyrna and Ephesus. The Emperor Sacrificing at the Temple of Diana. Aug de Saint-Aubin delin [Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736~1807)] C. N. Varin Scul 1782 [Charles Nicolas Varin (1741~1812)] Last leaf (pages 203/4) from volume 1 of 'Voyage Pittoresque De La Grece' by Choiseul-Gouffier. Description below engraving: La Legende de la 1ere Medaille designe L'union des villes de Smyrne et d'Ephese. Les Figures representent les Divinites Tutelaires de ces deux Villes. La 2e Medaille frappee pour les Ephesiens presente a fon revers L'Empereur Sacrifiant sur un trepied devant Le Temple de Diane. Rough translation of French into English: The Legend of the 1st Medal designated The union of the cities of Smyrna and Ephesus. Figures represent the Deities Guardians of these two Cities. The 2nd Medal struck for Ephesians presented on the reverse The Sacrificing Emperor on a Tripod in front of The Temple of Diana. The engraving, printed on a sheet of thick laid paper, comes from volume one of 'Voyage Pittoresque De La Grece' published in 1782 by Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier (1752~1817). A second volume appeared in 1809 and a third (i.e. volume 2, part 2) was published posthumously in 1822. The author's unreserved admiration for Greece and its people, combined with the recreation of its topography and costume was received with great enthusiasm by the French public. The work is particularly notable for its plates, including as they do fine views, architectural details, accurate maps and head and tailpieces. Size: 32 x 51cm. Image clean and undamaged. One uneven edge where cut from book. Light overall wear & browning to edges. A little buckling and light creasing to margins here & there. Choiseul-Gouffier travelled with the artist Jean-Baptiste Hilaire to the Levant in 1776 as a member of a scientific expedition to the eastern Mediterranean on board the Atalante, commanded by the marquis de Chabert, a veteran of the American Revolution, who was charged with the correction of the French navy's charts of the region. The party included Jean-Baptiste Hilaire, considered by Boppe, in his Les Peintres du Bosphore au Dix-huitième Siècle, to be the artist amongst the early orientalists who best understood the Levant, and who contributed the expressive landscapes and well-observed and characterful costume studies; the engineer and architect Jacques Foucherot, who surveyed the archaeological sites and provides the superb plates of architectural details; and Foucherot's secretary, François Kauffer, later to identify the site of ancient Troy at Hisarlik, who was responsible for producing of most of the detailed charts of harbours and islands. The spectacular baroque allegorical tailpieces, most of them emblematic of the islands visited, are the work of Guët, Choffard, Varin, Moreau le jeune, and Hilaire amongst others. N° de réf. du vendeur 000744
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