What you see is a painted impression of the physical circumstances of an European artist in the early nineteenth century. Among other details and objects, a lot of paper is present. Let's have a a closer look, #paperhistory and #bookhistory. A thread.
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The painting is titled Léon Pallière (1787–1820) in His Room at the Villa Medici, Rome, and was painted in 1817 on oil. The artist: the French Jean Alaux.
Here is a link to more details: metmuseum.org/art/collection…
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The writing place. A place of various paper usages: a letter on the table, a few bound books, folders filled with loose paper sheets, unbound books, a few sheets of paper in-between. Also: an ink pot, and a writing quill. #paperhistory
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At the wall: a few prints. Printed images produced using usually a carved woodblock or an engraved copperplate. These popular prints of the time, available from peddlers and book sellers alike, were produced and sold around 1800 in Europe in their millions. #bookhistory
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As this painting was intended to show an artist in 1817 working in Italy, these two paper objects on the wall need more attention. What you see is a map, a bestselling item of the period, and the smaller one is another bestseller: a devotional print. Holy Mary and Baby Jesus.
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So makes in 1817 a map of Europe and a devotional print at an Italian wall so special? Well, did I mention that around 1800 Italian bookselling and printselling networks flooded Europe with millions of decorative and devotional prints like these two? #bookhistory
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The leisure corner, made for reading near the bed. Interesting detail: two bound books, likely novels, and a few fresh quires of paper sheets waiting to be used. Here, newly produced paper sheets, likely in the trade units of the time, were waiting for action. #paperhistory
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A closer look at the paper sheets: Around 1800 most paper amounts were still calculated in trade units around quantity, i.e. describing the number of sheets. So these are packages of 24/25 sheets - called in Dutch 24 a "boek", in German ein "Buch", in English “a quire”.
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At the wall: more decorative prints, not glued to the walls, but pinned. I hope you enjoyed this paper thread.
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