{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O827182"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O827182/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KJ8939/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KJ8939/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KJ8939","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FE6220","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KK5854","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O827182/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O827182","accessionNumber":"E.1937-1919","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"Design for the back of a gem-set handmirror","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"This design for the back of a gem-set handmirror is the original drawing for the engraving in the same direction, signed and dated 1561 (see E.4733-1920). It shows the Death of Julia, daughter of Cesar, while the cartouche is dominated by the allegorical figure of Fortune, and flanked by figures of the Four Elements. Etienne Delaune was a goldsmith who provided attractive designs to artists and artisans throughout Europe. He was deeply influenced by the school of Fontainebleau, whose motifs and gracious style he reinterpreted in his own manner.","physicalDescription":"Within a frame of guilloche surrounded by fruits and allegorical figures of the four elements, with a figure of Fortune on the top, is a scene representing the death of a woman, attended by two handmaids while a warrior, holding a spear, is looking down at her.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Etienne Delaune","id":"A8334"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pen","id":"x47746"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"vellum","id":"AAT11852"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Drawing","id":"x32498"},{"text":"Wash","id":"AAT182748"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen, ink and wash on vellum","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"}],"styles":[{"text":"Renaissance","id":"AAT21140"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2017KJ8939","2012FE6220","2017KK5854"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"PD","shelf":"254","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1561","earliest":"1561-01-01","latest":"1561-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"E.4733-1920","id":"O819978"},"association":"Reproduction"},{"object":{"text":"28726:114","id":"O999534"},"association":"Reproduction"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"13.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"11.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Purchased from Miss C.M.Pott for £12.0.0;\r\nWithin the mount in which this drawing was received was an inscription: 'Design for an ornament attributed to Cellini, from the collection of William Beckford. The centre represents the Death of Cleopatra...'\nThis drawing is traditionally thought to come from the collection of William Beckford.","historicalContext":"This drawing is the original design for an engraving also in the V&amp;A collection E.4733-1920 and is characteristic of Delaune’s delicate manner: he mostly executed his drawings on vellum, rarely on paper, in which case they tend to be bigger in format. His style is marked by a great clarity in the composition, delineated with sharp lines and shaded with a pale wash, as noticed by the great 18th-century collector Pierre-Jean Mariette who owned a few works by Delaune. \r\n\nIt has been suggested that the drawings were made first for submission to patrons, which would explained their high degree of finish and refinement, and subsequently engraved for a wider audience. Most of the drawings which correspond closely to the engravings are made in the same direction . This implies that Delaune used to reverse his image on the plate in order to be as close as possible to the presentation drawing (this belies the assertion made by Isle O’Dell, who thought that this drawing was a copy after the print because they were executed in the same direction).\n\r\nThis drawing shows the death of an Antique heroin sometimes interpreted as Julia, daughter of Titus, but most likely to be identified as Julia, daughter of Cesar and wife of Pompey. The story related by Plutarch in his <i>Life of Pompey</i> (53) corresponds closely to the scene depicted here. A soldier brings to Julia the blood-stained toga of her husband Pompey, which causes her to faint away and regained her senses with difficulty. The allegorical figures of Fortune on the top of the cartouche and of the four Elements on the sides add some dignity to the scene depicted in the centre. \n\r\nThis design could be related to a series of designs called of the ‘Tragedy of Cesar and Pompey’, which were executed for the King Henry II in the same period in 1561.\r\nDelaune made another similar composition of the same subject, a design for a gem-set oval, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (pen and brown ink with brown wash on vellum, WA 1863.133.265). While the main corpus of Delaune’s drawings can be found in the Ashmolean Museum, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich and the Louvre, Paris, the V&A owns another design by Delaune: 2243.","briefDescription":"Etienne Delaune, Design for the back of a gem-set handmirror showing the Death of Julia, Daughter of Cesar, French school, 1561\r\n","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ilse O'Dell, 'Etienne Delaune and Jost Amman. Drawings after Prints and Prints after Drawings', <u>Print Quaterly</u>, VII, 4 (Dec 1990), pp. 414-417, fig 259."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jon Whiteley, 'Drawings into Prints', <u>Prints Quaterly</u>, VIII, 2 (June 1991), pp. 172-173."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"C. Pollet, <u>Les gravures d'Etienne Delaune (1518-1583)</u>, Paris, 1995, vol.I, p. 41 and 265, ill. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Robert-Dumesnil, <u>Le peintre graveur français</u>, Paris, 1865,  IX, p.96, no. 315 (for the engraving only)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1919</u>, London: Printed Under the Authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Julia","id":"N4883"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 53"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.1937-1919"],"accessionNumberNum":"1937","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1919,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}