Lot 45: Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot (Lyon 1727-1801 Parma)

Veduta del Boschetto d'Arcadia dalla parte del Tempio
pen and brown ink
11 1/4 x 16 3/8 in. (285 x 415 mm.)

Petitot, un Artista del Settecento Europeo a Parma, exhib. cat., Parma, p. 120.

with Edwin Parsons and Sons, London (L. 2881).
with Kurt Meissner, Zürich.

Etched in 1769 by Givanni Volpato as 'Veduta del Boschetto d'Arcadia dalla parte del Tempio' for the Feste celebrate in Parma per le nozze del Reale Infante Duca Fernando di Borbone con S.A.R l'Arciduchessa d'Austria Maria Amalia l'anno MDCCLXIX.


On August 24 1769, Maria Amalia, Archduchess of Austria and daughter of the Emperor Francis I arrived in Parma to meet her husband, Don Ferdinando of Bourbon, Duke of Parma, whom she had married by proxy two months previously.
Extravagant celebrations took place in Parma, organised and supervised by Petitot who was then First Architect of the Duchy. A volume celebrating these 'feste' was published before the end of the year and included about 40 prints after projects by Petitot for the celebrations. The volume was praised in Italy and elsewhere. Pierre-Jean Mariette considered it 'a chef-d'oeuvre [...] parfaitement exécuté' (C. Nizars, Correspondance inédite du comte de Caylus avec le père Paciaudi, Paris, 1887, II, p. 363) and Marie-Antoinette, the Queen of France and Maria Amalia's sister, thought that the book proved that 'Italie... est toujours le pays des Arts' (P. Voigt de Honolstein, Correspondance inédite de Marie-Antoinette, Paris, 1864, letter of 5 October 1770).
The 'boschetto d'Arcadia' was situated on a little island in the statue garden of the ducal park, in which was placed the sculpted group of Silenus (1757) by Jean-Baptiste Boudard (1710-1768). In 1769, at the occasion of the royal wedding, Petitot erected the ruined doric tempietto visible in the centre of the present drawing.
In the sale of the collection of the late Marquis de Felino, formerly Prime Minister of the duchy of Parma, on 27 March 1775 were 'trois Dessins très précieusement faits à la plume; ils représentent différentes Fêtes & Tournois donnés à Parme' (lot 96).