Arch of Constantine, Rome (after Giovanni Paolo Panini)
Maker
Arthur Pond
and (British (English), died in Italy, c. 1705 - 1758)
Maker
Charles Knapton
(British (English), 1700-1760)
AfterAfter a work by
Giovanni Paolo Panini
(Italian, c. 1692-1765)
Datecirca 1734 - 1735
MediumEtching in brown and woodcut in gray on off-white laid paper
DimensionsPlate: 5-7/8 x 9-7/16 in. (14.9 x 24 cm)
Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
Credit LineUniversity Transfer from Max Epstein Archive, Gift of Max Epstein, 1937
Collections
Object number1976.145.212
Status
Not on viewArthur Pond—artist, connoisseur, collector, dealer, and publisher—specialized in selling high-end Old Master drawings to an English market weary of the undesirable forgeries so often found on trips abroad. Between 1734 and 1740, he produced a collection of Seventy Prints in Imitation of Drawings with his partner Charles Knapton, a skilled printmaker.
The prints were based on drawings in private collections, including Pond’s own. Through the process of selecting which images to imitate, these men demonstrated their ability to recognize art of the highest quality; in the course of re-creating the drawings, Pond and Knapton also demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the artist’s creative process, revealing an expert hand as well as a trained eye. The selection of Seventy Prints in Imitation of Drawings illustrates the common eighteenth-century English preference for Italian artists (or artists such as Claude who worked in Italy).
