A Monumental 19th-century Achievement
Excerpt from the book 'Auguste Racinet's Le Costume historique'.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Also cited is his work on typographical illustrations to Apuleius's Golden Ass, and on the first printed editions of The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Sumptuary Arts and Engelmann's L'Institution de l'ordre du Saint Esprit (The Institution of the Order of the Saint Esprit). The dossier further refers to the reports that Racinet drafted as Secretary to the Drawing Schools Jury for the exhibitions at the Union centrale 1874-1876. On his death on 29 October 1893 at Montfort-l'Amaury, near Paris, he was famous above all for his two essential works: L'Ornement polychrome, 2000 motifs, recueil historique et pratique (Polychrome Ornament, 2000 Motifs, a Historical and Practical Collection), published in 1869, which went to a second edition in 1885-1887, and Le Costume historique (Costume History), whose sixth volume, containing the introductions and contents, completed the work in 1888.
This work of vulgarization was an exemplary product of the editorial policy of the great publisher Ambroise Firmin-Didot (1790-1876), printer to the Institut de France. Firmin-Didot, it will be remembered, was a distinguished Hellenist, elected member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1872, and a collector of manuscripts and rare books. The publishing house that he developed was that of his uncle Pierre Didot (1761-1853), who had himself published the celebrated Voyages pittoresques et romantiques en France (Picturesque and Romantic Voyages in France) by Baron Taylor, on which many illustrators had worked; its 685 numbers appeared over the period 1820-1876. Ambroise Didot published a series of archeological works on Egypt, Greece, Pompeii, and so on, to which Auguste Racinet constantly refers. These were the principal sources of his famous Polychrome Ornament, a practical collection put together with the avowed intention of "rendering major services to our industrial arts". In this he was at one with the artistic preoccupations of his contemporaries in the years 1845 to 1890. He belonged to the generation trained by neo-classical artists in the ambit of Percier and Fontaine, influenced by the Schinkel tendency and supported by architects such as Hittorf and, later, Viollet-le-Duc.
This scholarly renaissance in Hellenistic art was not, in their view, simply a matter of imitating classical antiquity; they thought of it as underpinning a new start in the decorative arts. A better understanding of past epochs would, they thought, make it possible to attain to beauty in the present day. This sense of the past was gradually enlarged during the second half of the 19th century to include the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; as a consequence, it was often criticized for its eclecticism, since the turn of the century was marked by ist "ambition for truth", as Roger Marx put it in his preface (15 October 1891) to Arsène Alexandre's Histoire de l'art du XVIe siècle à nos jours (History of Art from the 16th Century to Our Own Day). Racinet placed his archeological art at the service of the decorative arts at a time when polychromy was central to architectural innovation.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Also cited is his work on typographical illustrations to Apuleius's Golden Ass, and on the first printed editions of The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Sumptuary Arts and Engelmann's L'Institution de l'ordre du Saint Esprit (The Institution of the Order of the Saint Esprit). The dossier further refers to the reports that Racinet drafted as Secretary to the Drawing Schools Jury for the exhibitions at the Union centrale 1874-1876. On his death on 29 October 1893 at Montfort-l'Amaury, near Paris, he was famous above all for his two essential works: L'Ornement polychrome, 2000 motifs, recueil historique et pratique (Polychrome Ornament, 2000 Motifs, a Historical and Practical Collection), published in 1869, which went to a second edition in 1885-1887, and Le Costume historique (Costume History), whose sixth volume, containing the introductions and contents, completed the work in 1888.
This work of vulgarization was an exemplary product of the editorial policy of the great publisher Ambroise Firmin-Didot (1790-1876), printer to the Institut de France. Firmin-Didot, it will be remembered, was a distinguished Hellenist, elected member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1872, and a collector of manuscripts and rare books. The publishing house that he developed was that of his uncle Pierre Didot (1761-1853), who had himself published the celebrated Voyages pittoresques et romantiques en France (Picturesque and Romantic Voyages in France) by Baron Taylor, on which many illustrators had worked; its 685 numbers appeared over the period 1820-1876. Ambroise Didot published a series of archeological works on Egypt, Greece, Pompeii, and so on, to which Auguste Racinet constantly refers. These were the principal sources of his famous Polychrome Ornament, a practical collection put together with the avowed intention of "rendering major services to our industrial arts". In this he was at one with the artistic preoccupations of his contemporaries in the years 1845 to 1890. He belonged to the generation trained by neo-classical artists in the ambit of Percier and Fontaine, influenced by the Schinkel tendency and supported by architects such as Hittorf and, later, Viollet-le-Duc.
This scholarly renaissance in Hellenistic art was not, in their view, simply a matter of imitating classical antiquity; they thought of it as underpinning a new start in the decorative arts. A better understanding of past epochs would, they thought, make it possible to attain to beauty in the present day. This sense of the past was gradually enlarged during the second half of the 19th century to include the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; as a consequence, it was often criticized for its eclecticism, since the turn of the century was marked by ist "ambition for truth", as Roger Marx put it in his preface (15 October 1891) to Arsène Alexandre's Histoire de l'art du XVIe siècle à nos jours (History of Art from the 16th Century to Our Own Day). Racinet placed his archeological art at the service of the decorative arts at a time when polychromy was central to architectural innovation.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Auguste Racinet, The Complete Costume History
Hardcover, 29 x 44 cm (11.4 x 17.3 in.), 636 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
From togas to tailcoats: a fashion time machine
Asiatic Headgear: Persians, Afghans or Pushtuns, Indians, Kurds, Parsees, Baktiani, Turkomans, Iliats, Arabs, Catholic bishop
Greek: Military wear. Offensive and defensive weapons. Civilian clothing