Charles Nicolas Cochin

Watermark: part of fleur-de-lis, similar to Heawood 1732. Watermark, beta radiograph. Fleur-de-lis 218186wm_1989_41_3_WM_beta.jpg
This sheet belongs to an ensemble of eighteen preparatory sketches (seven for vignettes and eleven for headpieces) for illustrations and two prints after Cochin for an 1784-85 edition of Torquato Tasso's "La Gerusalemme Liberata" published in Paris by François Ambroise Didot. These illustrations were commissioned by Monsieur, the Comte de Provence and the brother of Louis XVI who later reigned as Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The eighteen drawings were part of an album of 102 drawings broken up and sold in several lots by Sotheby's, London, in 1970.
The present sheet is the preparatory drawing for the first page of Canto I (Argomento) of "La Gerusalemme Liberata", illustrating Stanze 7, 11, and 15 of the poem: “Dall'alto soglio il Padre eterno.” The corresponding finished drawing is in Volume I of the two albums containing Gravelot's final designs in the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library.
This is the most important design for a headpiece by Cochin among the eleven in the Morgan Library group. This full-page drawing is the model for the layout of all succeeding pages with headpieces and culs-de-lampe, or tailpieces. Four lines of text underneath the design representing God the Father Sending the Angel Gabriel to Tortosa are followed by a stanza of eight lines (ottava) inscribed on a simulated stone tablet; the cul-de-lampe below it shows the rising sun dispersing the clouds. A comparison between this and the finished drawing in the Spencer Collection shows some compositional differences, revealing Cochin's refinement of the vignette.