Jackson, John Baptist

Folio (23 1/3 x 18 3/4 in.; 590 x 480 mm). Letterpress title. 24 chiaroscuro woodcuts, each printed in four colors. Expertly bound to style in quarter marbled calf with tips and period Italian patterned paper covered boards.

Very rare complete set of the twenty-four chiaroscuro woodcuts which make up Jackson's masterpiece: one of the great glories of 18th-century printmaking.

Jackson began the Titiani Vecelii... in 1739 with three subscribers, and despite difficulties in obtaining other subscribers due to the outbreak of war in Europe, he managed to complete the twenty-four prints depicting 17 paintings by 1743, and the work was published in 1745. During the four and a half years Jackson was involved in this project, he included the techniques of embossing in his prints, cut and proofed ninety-four blocks, and brought chiaroscuro forward as a strong alternative to standard engraving as a means of reproducing paintings.

In his book of 1754, An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro, Jackson comments on his medium; "... there is a masterly and free Drawing [in chiaroscuro], a boldness of Engraving and Relief, which pleases a true Taste more than all the little Exactness found in the Engravings in Copper plates..."

List of plates available upon request.